A Lady's Job
by Panda musume
Summary: It was her job. The vile job of bringing quiet "justice" to the ones who wanted to breach the wall that the two houses protected. And if her power wasn't enough to stop this unknown force that dared to turn Edo into a battleground, then she would have to work with a damn sadist in order to solve this problem. okikagu rated T. slight AU. Dropped. Read at your own risk.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: New okikagu story!

Still takes place in the Gintama universe. Just AU setting and placement of characters. xD

Omg. . .I went past 4k words. . . xD

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 1: What a Wonderful Birthday

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A bullet whizzed by and grazed her cheek.

Kagura cursed—more like shouted far too many profanities that Otae would've liked.

"_A lady must be elegant at all times, even when you're being chased by a gorilla."_

She snorted and swung her umbrella over her head, twisting and coiling her body in order to incapacitate a handful of men. She lunged, evading a sword that would've pierced her back and cursed again. _Elegant my ass. _If not for her unlimited stealth and stamina, she would have already succumbed to the will to collapse with her face flat on the floor, considering the_ very_ crucial fact that she had _not _eaten breakfast as of yet.

And you would think that mornings would be peaceful.

Kagura roared, flying through the air and twisting her body up to the point where the people of Edo would call her "inhumane." She struggled to hold back a sigh.

So much for her birthday.

She spat in the face of another man and performed an uppercut that made him pass out.

_This_ was definitely the work of the fucking scumbag that she called her brother. Apparently, Admiral Nincompoop thought it would be wise to set an example to the people that his "weak" little sister wasn't so weak after all. Although she had no complaints about his order for once, seeing as their bald, retired father finally didn't have a say in the agreement this time. But she was_ certain_ that if he had a choice, he would've most likely protested that his "darling little girl" should stay sheltered in the premises at all times, despite her job.

And he still did, only to be _escorted _back into his room by Gintoki and Abuto.

She let out a laugh. _Serves him right._

Kagura just didn't realize that her stupid butthead of a brother decided to never tell her about the plan, _or _how it was going to be carried out—but that was Kamui. Her over-unpredictable brother. Obviously, he thought it would set a good example for the people if he decided to send her a barrage of ronin while she was _sleeping _in her perfectly comfortable bed. Even more so on the day of her _birthday_. The feeling of alertness and exasperation she had experience whilst in the middle of grabbing her umbrella and blasting out into the cold November air was still fresh in her mind.

The hateful feelings still lingered. Oh yes, _very _much so.

She made a mental note to kill Kamui later. _No one_ should ever experience the feeling of facing the winter cold without breakfast. Kagura stopped to catch her breath before burying her foot into another ronin's stomach.

The only question was where he got the people. Although, by Kamui's strange connections and influence, he'd probably sold some of her information to some ronin thugs in kabukichou who wanted to make a name for themselves.

_How stupid._

She skillfully maneuvered through the air, soaring the sky as the wind brushed against her entire body.

She felt light.

As if she was flying.

Soon enough, by the time she ran out of bullets was when all of the ronin had either collapsed or ran away. Kagura landed with a slight thump on the ground, finally realizing that she had brought the fight outside the premises of her home, where numerous spectators stood around her and stared in awe. The plan worked. Letting out a triumphant smirk, she was immediately caught off guard when her stomach let out a disturbing growl, which was clumsily covered up with a sheepish grin as the townspeople stifled their gasps and giggles.

Her grin died when a voice cut through the air like a knife.

"My, my, imouto-chan. You certainly made a mess this time around."

She whipped her head in the direction of the voice, her uncombed red hair flying everywhere. The crowd around her had dispersed to let the young man of twenty-three through.

Kamui. The Head of the yatos.

She gave him a smile. A wry, angry smile that he seemed to ignore as he kept his placid smiling façade on his face like a mask. She resisted the urge to spit.

_Cunning bastard._

Letting out a low growl, Kagura stomped right up to him, ignoring the glances the two retainers beside him had on their faces. _New recruits_, perhaps, since they seemed to not know about the constant banter between the siblings. Although, Kagura regarded their conversations as more of a one-sided fight. If there was one thing that she knew as his younger sibling, it was that Kamui _never_ fought all-out with her. And that's what made her so frustrated.

Kamui always won, whether in terms of brute strength or when it came to outwitting her.

She huffed angrily, "You couldn't have waited until after _breakfast!?_" She yelled in a hushed whisper, ignoring the curious glances of the people. Her brother smiled again, and the fire inside of her that wanted to wipe that smile off burned more than ever before. Honestly, what kind of insane person makes you experience fighting dozens of ronin when you're _sleeping?!_ Obviously, Kamui did.

He raised both of his hands, as if proven guilty of a bad deed. "Preparations were a bit rushed, imouto-chan. I was expecting you to at least get breakfast, although that didn't go according to plan."

She snorted. _Since when did any of your plans work out the way you planned._

Kamui leaned over, whispering in her ear. "Sho-chan wanted you to have some public attention since you clean out the rats quite well. Take it as a sign of gratitude, imouto-chan. Besides, "the best acting comes from those who never expect it.""

"That's a quote you stole from Gin-chan." She deadpanned, quirking an eyebrow. Although that didn't seem to stop the vein on her head from getting larger.

Kamui waved his hand, dismissing the topic. "No matter. I've told you before, didn't I? I have no use for weaklings. If you can't do something of this caliber, then you're not worth being in the yato clan. Although that might not happen in the far future yet." He cast his eyes over her, an unreadable expression clouding over. "_Your job is quite simple, after all_."

Kagura bit her lip, restraining the feeling to punch her brother.

_Breakfast, breakfast, think of breakfast._

Exhaling, she "accidentally" stepped on his foot as she stomped passed him, muttering a number of incoherent profanities as the two retainers stepped out of her way whilst she walked back to the House.

He didn't even mention anything about her birthday.

The cold November air whipped at her face as she pushed herself to sprint to the kitchen.

What a wonderful day this was indeed.

* * *

After practically raiding the kitchen and stealing the packs of sukonbu reserved for her brother, Kagura felt alive and well, ready to spend the remainder of the day in the training room with her mentor, Gintoki, who was most likely reading another newly released issue of JUMP. Currently, most members of the yato house were away at an annual gathering (which Kagura would be able to go to once she turned twenty), so she was thankful for the absence of the smell of sweat and dirt in the training room. Although mostly, she preferred to train outside, where nature sang to her instead of the brutal grunts and roars from the other yatos.

Kagura opened the tatami door with her feet; readjusting her hold on the dozens of sukonbu boxes that were just barely in her hands. She smiled once she saw her mentor, who was lazily sprawled all over the floor with his JUMP magazine. "Gin-cha—" She started before a sukonbu box fell onto the floor. And like most stereotypical events in manga/anime, Kagura slipped on the pitiful box, and fell.

Inelegantly.

Kagura cursed as the sukonbu boxes flew in the air for a split second before they dropped on top of the unsuspecting silver-headed man. Unfortunately, the containers had opened and spilled all over his head. It was truly a very sad sight.

_Very _devastating.

Kagura bit back tears of anguish. Gintoki screamed.

"AAAAHHHH! Kagura! What the hell is this!? This looks like the shit your brother eats and—eww. I smell like piss and armpits now, and I just got this kimono after Bakasugi burned my last one! You know Gin-san isn't supposed to smell like thi—hey wait! Are you even listening to me!? O-oi, why is your soul flying out from your mouth—oh shit. KAGURA-CHAN! COME BACK!"

The red-head laid on the floor, still as a rock. Apparently, the shock had just gotten to her as she monotonously replied. "You always smell like that, Gin-chan. And Ketsuno Ana probably smells like that too." Deadpanning, she rolled over and crawled her way to Gintoki, who was still on the floor. All covered in the smell of her favorite food.

Kagura _really_ wanted to cry.

Instead, she cursed, picking off the pieces of sukonbu from his hair and clothes. The yato girl sighed, catching Gintoki's attention. "Now my sukonbu is wasted on the likes of you." Feeling crippled and dry, she forced down the tears that were prickling in her eyes.

Her mentor smacked the back of her head. "Oi, don't treat me like some sort of disease, damn brat. Gin-san is higher than that shithead admiral nincompoop you call your big bro—"

Their talk was interrupted when a prosthetic arm slid the door over even further, causing a loud thump to resound through the room, ceasing the duo's argument.

"Jou-chan, your brother wants to see you." A man strolled inside and looked at the two with an indifferent expression. Kagura looked up at him and swore.

Abuto. Kamui's right hand man, didn't look displeased in the foulness of her use of language in the slightest. She defined him as one of the types of old men who focused on getting his job done. Fortunately, Abuto was one of the few people that Kagura could _tolerate_ out of the many frustrating people in the Yato House. The man didn't try to wriggle into her pants so he could get into the good graces of her brother, like many have tried, but failed. Although, even if they did get onto Kagura's good side, Kamui evaluates the person himself (which usually ended with a dead or almost-dead body on the ground). But she really couldn't call Abuto a friend. He was more of—a neutral confident.

The middle-aged man was a laidback person who could keep secrets _and_ lie. And fortunately for Kagura, he did his job well whenever he caught her napping in the broom closet.

"Tell him I'm in the middle of a crisis." She deadpanned with half-lidded eyes. Sukonbu was _not_ a food to be taken lightly.

Abuto sighed, "No can do this time, missy. You'll have to stop your crisis for a bit and visit him."

Kagura huffed, about to retort with another excuse until Abuto slanted his eyes and pointed to the hallway with his finger.

"He has a job for you."

At the mention of those words, she immediately stiffened, waiting for her hands to clench and unclench. She grit her teeth, forgetting about the sukonbu that had spilled all over Gintoki. It seemed that the Shiroyasha's rant had ceased as well as he stared at Abuto. _Unbelievable._ She thought that her birthday was the day that she would _finally_ have a break without all of the needless instructions and bloody clothes. Honestly, it was either that the Shogun had something in store for her again, or Kamui was just way too unreasonable. Kagura picked the latter. Sho-chan was way too kind.

After a long stare, Abuto left the room with a wave of his hand and a box of sukonbu at the doorway.

"A present from your brother." He said, and walked into the halls. Kagura slowly stood up and walked to the doorway, reluctantly picking up the sukonbu box as she stepped into the hallways.

"Oi."

She stopped and slowly turned to her mentor, who raised his arm and threw something that landed right into the space of her slender hands. She had caught an object. More specifically, she'd caught a small box, and looked up at Gintoki with eyes filled with wonder. Gintoki nodded, watching as she opened the cheap wrapping and saw the inside contents of the box.

Kagura smiled warmly, a light blush adorning her pale cheeks. Gin-chan had always known what she liked. She took the small cake into her hands and swallowed it in a mouthful. A little too sweet, but it was nice, nevertheless. She could give her caretaker a break about his sugar habits once in a while.

Gintoki grimaced as she wiped the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand. "Where the hell do you get those disgusting habits? Gin-san never raised you to be a child like this—" He soon found that to be a bad decision when the box hit his face as he let out a small 'gya.'

"_You _did_."_ Kagura deadpanned, suddenly changing her facial expression to that of a child waiting for Santa Clause, grinning mischievously. "Did you forget to tell me anything else?" Her sapphire colored eyes sparkled. Presents were rarely given during the birthdays of yatos. Usually, it would be a bow from the head of the house or a dead animal offering. In her opinion though, those were just too depressing and boring. She wanted her birthday to be. . .fluffy.

Kagura observed as the silver-headed man sighed as he scratched his head, quirking his mouth into a lazy half smile.

"Happy birthday, damn brat."

With that, Kagura grinned childishly as she practically ran over to her caretaker and jumped into his warm arms, burrowing her face deep into his shoulder.

"Mm."

That was all she needed to hear.

After that, with a pat on the head and a long bear hug from her caretaker, she set off to her brother's room.

* * *

Kagura sat down on the cushion placed for her. She was sitting across from her brother, who had a piece of sukonbu sitting in his mouth. She lowered her eyes down to her own hand, and realized that she had never let go of sukonbu box. It was still there. So with nothing to say or do, Kagura opened the box and slowly brought a piece to her mouth, chewing slowly.

"So," Kamui started, smiling, "I have a job for you."

She kept chewing, focusing her attention onto her brother, waiting for him to reveal her next job.

Kagura looked at him thoughtfully. She had been doing this since she was fifteen, and yet she never quite got used to the feeling of having blood on her hands. Her job was something that was done in absolute secrecy, up to the point where only the members of the Yato House and some others outside of the house knew.

But if she had to put it in one word, she would say that her job was disgusting.

It had involved her to bring down the people who had dared to step in between the path of the Shogun; people who wanted to step into the Yato clan's good graces, and people who wanted to start a conspiracy in the bakufu. After all, when you're one of the two main houses that make up a part of the iron-wall protection for the Shogun,_ someone_ is bound to want to break it down. But in her mind, the yatos weren't all that powerful. They succumbed to their madness while fighting, and had an enormous amount of bloodlust that drove many insane, which led them to their inevitable deaths. The only exception was Kamui, who somehow _barely_ managed to keep his rationality in check whilst fighting. But this job seemed to be something he couldn't interfere in. He was the Head of the House now, and was forced to stay in order to maintain the balance and politics of the yatos. That's why he needed her—until she was finished and broken beyond fixing.

She was Kagura. Daughter of the famed amanto Umibouzu, who was the previous head of the House, and a dead mother, Sister to the damned Admiral Nincompoop, and the clean-up crew for persistent rats who aspired, or managed to wriggle themselves in through a tiny crack of the wall.

Her job was to "clean up the rats."

The other group of people; the Okita House, her brother had told her once, were the ones who cooperated in fixing the wall. Apparently, they had also made some sort of police force in order to keep the _order _of Edo. _The shinsengumi_, she recalled Soyo-hime telling her.

But imagine the looks on the other clan members' faces when she was deemed by her brother to be the one to carry out the _jobs_. Their faces almost made her want to laugh.

It wasn't unnatural to see yato women regarded as weak amongst their own kind. They didn't have the same amount of power as the other yatos unless taken into intensive, suicidal training which took years to complete. And the only usefulness they provided was to breed children in order to keep the clan running. _Just like a pack of animals. _Luck be damned. If not for her will to survive and the blood of Umibouzu, Kagura wouldn't have finished the training. And it didn't make anything better because she was the little sister of Kamui (who was regarded as a genius) and the daughter of the previous head. It just made it easier for people to single her out as the black sheep of the clan. But she didn't worry about that anymore. She had gotten her revenge on the yatos who had constantly laughed at her, beating them in a show of strength when she was receiving fair treatment. Although, the reason why she was receiving better treatment was because of the constant work and jobs she'd been doing in order to "clean out the rats." Besides Soyo-hime (who was her very best friend and confident), the Shogun, the innermost part of the Bakufu, and some other specified people who she was never in contact with, no one else knew.

Kamui released a light, almost hearty chuckle, bringing her back to her senses.

She growled, tired of waiting. "_Spit it out_."

A moment of silence was heard until Kamui opened his mouth. And the words uttered after the silence was the storm.

"I got you engaged."

Another moment of silence passed.

Kagura sent her empty box of sukonbu flying in the direction of her brother's face. He dodged it.

"I take _jobs_, baka-aniki. And if I want a husband, I'll find him myself!" She was seething, her mind blown; curses were right at the tip of her tongue. Kamui, of course, kept his placid smile on all throughout her anger. She wanted to kill him.

"Now, now, imouto-chan. Technically, I already engaged you, but it's only temporary unless something happens. And—" He stood up and dodged the bullets and ignored the profanities that were being shot at him, "I would appreciate it if you heard the _whole _story." His voice was light and chirpy, and that only made Kagura seethe even more.

After a few moments, she muttered a few select words that Gintoki would be proud of, and picked her nose, slowly settling back down onto her cushion. Kamui did the same.

"Now then, let's get started." He opened his eyes, letting her get a glimpse of the blue that were the same as hers'.

Yatos had many distinguishable traits, for example. Their pale, creamy skin and their weakness to the sun (hence, the need to carry umbrellas around). But the eyes were the ones that had to be the most vivid. Each member of the yato clan had their own pair of unique eyes, shining in an almost-beautiful way when fighting or getting excited. Kamui's though—Kagura thought that they were dim. Very dim.

But she ignored it like always. Instead, she quirked an eyebrow and waited for an explanation.

The head rested an arm on his leg, sitting with his legs crossed. "Lately, members of our house have been dying and disappearing. The same has been going on with the other samurai house that protects the shogun." He waved a hand. "The Okita clan. The one that the hime-sama told you about. The House that established the shinsenseki—_shinsengumi_."

Kagura raised her eyebrows. "But who would be strong enough to kill a yato?" Yatos were indeed, the strongest race out of all the amantos that had settled on Earth. Although there had been one that was on par with it before, the yatos lead a purge to wipe them out. That's what they had been doing every time a powerful race matched theirs, until her older brother's generation came along.

Kamui kept smiling, "That's what Sho-chan wants you to find out."

She picked her nose, flabbergasted. "_What?_" _By myself?_

"Rest assured, sister dear." Kamui reassured, as if reading her thoughts. "You'll be doing this with someone else. More specifically, one other person from the Okita house. Apparently, he's supposed to be a genius or whatnot. Twenty-three and the "_best swordsman in the shinsengumi_."" He lifted a thoughtful finger up to his chin. "Although, I still believe that samurai-san may be stronger."

_Sakata Gintoki_. One of the very few men that Kagura held in very high standards. Along with Takasugi Shinsuke, they were one of the few people that were allowed to stay in the yato household. Having been excellent swordsmen and also participating in the Purge (and piquing Umibouzu's interest), they had landed themselves into the household with a whopping crash. Apparently, Gin-chan had made a name for himself during the time when he wasn't taken into the family, earning the nickname _Shiroyasha._

"So," She started, "who the_ hell_ is he?" Kagura inquired, refusing to utter the word 'fiance.' Kagura had sneaked out of the premises many times before in order to visit Soyo-hime or take a leisure stroll around the Kabukichou district, where she met with several people in a bar who were her "information gatherers" when it came down to it. Although, despite the escapes she made from her house, she had never heard of any _genius _from the shinsengumi—

"He's the younger brother of the Head of the Okita House, Mitsuba. His name's Okita Sougo." Kamui lightly chirped.

The corners of Kagura's mouth curved up as she uttered a small 'oh'. _Mitsuba? _"A woman?" It was rare to see women being the head of a house these days. Kagura had absolutely no qualms about a woman being the head of a house. These days, women were regarded as lesser than men. Obviously, it made Kagura's blood boil at the thought.

"Oh, not really." Kamui smiled. "She's a figure-head. Apparently, it's her husband that does most of the work. That woman's got tuberculosis, so she's mostly not active for the time being until she gets her treatment."

Kagura slowly nodded her head, brushing away the feelings that invaded her like a plague. A thought then passed through her head and slipped out of her mouth like water. A lightbulb went off. "Why can't _you_ get this done instead? Shouldn't this involve politics or something?" Begrudgingly, she admit that Kamui was a better fighter serious or not, and he had better intellect than her as well. Kagura also knew about_ politics_, since it was a necessity to be learned. But she _refused_ to include boring topics like that in her everyday life.

Kamui smiled, as if it were the most natural thing to do. "Because there are rats that listen, imouto-chan. _Especially_ in the yato clan. Which means I can't move around freely. So Sho-chan's decided that you'd be sent to the Okita House as his "fiancé" and are to make sure to find out who's behind killing all of our and the other house's people. Oh, and get rid of them as quietly as possible. And by the way, samurai-san will be going with you, so I'll explain it to him later. And you can take that Gorilla woman with you if you want. I'm pretty sure you'll be lonely there without me."

Kagura spat. "Says who?"

She only received a smile. His–ever-so-present smile response. And she cringed.

"So," She started, "When do I leave?"

"Today." He stated bluntly.

". . . .Excuse me?"

Kamui chuckled, his braid sliding from his shoulder to his back. "Consider this as a birthday present from me."

He was rewarded with a haul of swear words and more bullets, all which he dodged with magnificent flexibility and speed as he bounded through—_right through_ the shoji doors. Abuto would have a fit about this later.

"Make sure to pack what you need, dear sister~." Were his last words as he ran through the hallways. After a moment, Kagura threw her umbrella down and slumped back onto the cushion, smothering the amount of swear words daring to come up.

Then, picking her head up and looking at the ceiling, she quickly stood and flung the shoji doors that lead to the garden open. She roared, releasing the annoyance and anger that had been built up during their talk. Her voice ached and cracked with every yell she made, and all she could muster after that was a dry laugh.

Truly, what did she do to deserve this?

No answer came. She laughed.

What a shitty birthday this was.

* * *

A/N: Ch 1 is finished

Til next time~


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Ch 2 is up!

**Chew Chew, **thank you xD, **Jerkygirl, **sigh….when will kamui's antics stop xD. Thx ^^

DISCALAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 2: Hearts and Meetings

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Kagura was the type of person that wore her heart on her sleeve. No matter what had happened, her emotions would always be obvious to the people around her. Happy, obnoxiously childish Kagura, who knew nothing of the world and had nothing to worry about. _That_ was what she wanted to be again. Wear her heart on her sleeve fully; smile brightly as if clueless of the world that she lived in.

But that was never going to happen.

She was a_ yato_. She was supposed to be a ruthless killer with no mercy for the many rats that dared to threaten the Shogun. A mindless tool used for wiping threats off of the Earth. Making sure that their existence was never anything important in anyone's lives.

But sometimes, they _we're_ important.

She tried sending them off with a smile like her brother did. . .once.

But the man's last words still rang inside of her head like a chime bell.

"_You. . . .monster."_

But it was true. She was a _monster_. A tool used to clean the wall and repair it with the other monsters.

She thought about it at night once before—about _monsters_. She remembered it happened around three years ago, in the second year of her job. And she came to a startling conclusion that she shared with no one else but Gin-chan, practically dragging him out of bed in the middle of night and ignoring his protests with a wide-eyed stare as she'd shared her thoughts.

Yatos were most definitely monsters, but humans were _beasts._ They killed, they stole, and they did a whole bunch of taboo acts without a second thought. They're greedy, wanting something—then everything to themselves without a second thought for others—

She didn't realize why she was talking to Gin-chan until she stopped mid-sentence of her babble, and then realized that the person she was hurriedly confiding into was, ironically, a _human. _But even then, she _still_ talked. As if a river of words flowed out of her mouth naturally, she told him everything. About the smiling, about the killing, and about the monsters that she had. And all of a sudden, she realized that she wasn't talking about humans anymore. She was talking about _herself. _Her own, disgusting self.

And she still remembered his unusual response.

"_We're humans, Kagura. That's just what we do. That's just what we are. We steal, we kill, we're greedy over just about any kind of shit we can find. But you know what? We can't do anything about it. We can't change what we've done in the past, or what we're doing now. All we can actually do is remember the purpose of what we're doing it for. And even then it still sucks. Just take your ol' Gin-san for example. When I was little, I was pretty much the bitch of the century. I stole, I killed, and I was just doing everything I could to survive. Hell, I even forgot what I was doing it for. No one was going to remember me, and the only thing I could be proud of was my name, which was pretty much the only thing I actually owned. I was a complete wreck. But then I met someone, and he gave me something to live for. Me, a good-for-nothing puny __**human**__. I'm pretty sure you heard this from your hage dad."_

"_It was pretty much hell for me, trying to survive. And now, I have a comfy bed, food, and a roof to sleep under. And just about around the time when you started to walk, I had a reason for living—friends to protect. And then, what I did in the past didn't really bother me much anymore."_

"_So, Kagura. What's your purpose in doing all this? It's fine if you don't wanna answer me. But you know what, kiddo? You shouldn't let this get you down later on in life. Just be happy—like old times."_

"_And if you can't be happy yet, find times where you can smile. Because you're __**Kagura**__. You're not a yato like your shitty brother or your old man. You're not a heartless killer like Gin-san used to be either. And you're definitely not a monster. You're __**Kagura**__, a shitty kid that likes to eat that disgusting seaweed crap, and has no sex appeal whatsoever."_

Excluding the last part, Kagura still remembered everything her mentor had said to her, absorbing every word, listening in the comforting silence. And after everything was over, she felt like she was_ Kagura_. Not some mindless, killing tool used to "clean up rats."

And she came to hate herself a bit less than before.

And it continued for three more long years; her job, the orders, the last words of every person she cut down. And despite what they've done, their words still stung. Because even if she didn't notice, she still wore a part of her heart on her sleeve. She never noticed it at all. And she smiles lesser to this day, but as her caretaker told her to do, she found things that she could actually enjoy—_smile_ for. And around a year ago, she found her purpose. Like Gintoki, she lived for her friends—her father (and begrudgingly, her brother). She lived to _try _to put her whole heart onto her sleeve, even though it might crush her one day.

And she lived to smile.

* * *

Well, even though one of the things Kagura lived for was to smile, she was most definitely _not_ smiling right now.

"Miss, only men are allowed to be in the Shinsengumi. You cannot come in."

She was seriously going to slug the man if he didn't step aside sooner or later. Honestly, Kagura wasn't stupid. In fact, she was far from her stupid fifteen year old self, who was prone to any fucked up lie she was given. But instead of blowing up, she pressed an annoyed smile on her face and looked at the young man with daggers in her eyes.

Said man almost wet his pants.

Kagura almost laughed, Gintoki was too busy picking his nose and complaining about the cold to care about what was going on, so Otae was the only responsible adult who bothered to take care of the matter.

Kagura watched as her Anego pressed her lips near the man's ear, watching him go red. She smirked. Otae was one of the most beautiful people Kagura knew, but it was strange for a man to blush _heavily_ at the situation they were in. _Especially_ when Otae was telling him to let them through in order for Kagura to meet her "fiancé."

A light bulb went off in her head.

_Ah, I see now._

"You're a virgin."

Time froze as everyone brought their eyes up to Kagura. Gintoki stopped picking his nose, staring at her with dead fish eyes until the young shinsengumi soldier finally ended the silence, giving an akward half-bow.

He coughed. "Y-You may go now." The poor man kept his head low, flushing a deep scarlet as they passed.

Gintoki stopped to give the young man a sympathetic look before catching up with the ladies.

* * *

Okita Sougo was _not_ happy.

Nope. Not at all. Zero. Nada.

Just when he_ finally_ had some time to visit his sister in her room, the damn_ pest_ known as her husband decided to show up at _his_ room and halt his journey to see his sister.

"_Sougo, there's another job for you."_

"_Hijikata-san~, give this poor police officer a brea—"_

"_You're engaged now."_

And because Sougo was already in a foul mood when Hijikata stopped him, he did the most rational thing that foul-moody people did.

He proceeded to stab Hijikata to death.

Okita only stopped trying to stab him when Hijikata hurriedly told him of the details; of why the engagement was made, the anonymously watchful eyes on the yato house more-so than the Okita House, and the mysterious disappearances of their people. When he was done explaining, it left Okita's mind swimming with newly acquired information, and possibly, a moody she-yato from the other House.

And they were coming _today._

Dammit.

Okita Sougo was _not_ happy. He was not happy at all. But this was work. This was his job. It wasn't something like his role as a Shinsengumi dog, where he could just skip patrols and arrest people as he pleased. This was _real_. It was where he had to make sure that the threats were silenced; no longer a danger to the bakufu and the Shogun. It was an obligation that he had to uphold for his whole entire life, until he was killed by an enemy and found dead in an equally dead alleyway in Edo. It was a duty that he couldn't run away from. But he never really tried, anyway. Maybe it was because he felt absolutely _nothing_ when he cut those people down. In fact, it didn't even faze him no matter how many he killed. Because_ this_ was _his_ decision. He knew of the unexplained rules that came along with the job. In fact, he was the very best option for this, not to mention being a genius at that. It suited him. It suited his nature just fine because he was a _killer_. He wasn't like Kondo-san, who was kind and caring, and filled with the type of hearty trust that might kill him someday. Nope, he wasn't like that at all. He was _ruthless._ He didn't wear his heart on his sleeve. He didn't do any of the sort. His world was eat or be eaten, and he knew—he knew how to keep his poker face on, keep his emotions in check. He knew to stay alert at all times because of the many enemies of the Shinsengumi; to never let his guard down. He was a_ natural_.

The genius swordsman of the shinsengumi.

He was the hitokiri.

Okita Sougo.

* * *

When Kagura, Gintoki, and Otae walked into the compound, two men were quick to escort them inside the House. Apparently, said men were the Commander and Vice-commander of the Shinsengumi. So there was nothing to hide, but while Kondo Isao showered them with trust and greetings, Hijikata was wary. This was the _yato clan _for God's sake. One wrong move to their little princess, and they could just possibly end up with a bomb in the side of the shinsengumi compound, which they _just_ fixed after one of Okita Sougo's assassination attempts on him.

Hijikata chose to bury that memory_ deep_ inside his brain.

But still, it was quite a shock to him that the Yato House had a woman—no, a _young girl _take on the job. It was a different story with Sougo, but _this girl_. This delicate-looking _young girl_—

It almost made him cringe.

They made small talk, introducing them to shinsengumi soldiers who passed by them, and also gave a brief introduction of the interior design of the house. Hijikata found a growing dislike for the silver-haired samurai. Kondo, on the other hand, was _infatuated _with Otae. The latter had a growing vein on her forehead that Hijikata almost _swore_ was going to pop.

Meanwhile, Kagura looked around, genuinely curious, forgetting for a moment where they were going, tuning out the banter that Gin-chan and the Vice-commander were having, ignoring the proclamation of marriage that the Gorilla-like Commander pushed onto Otae as she gave him a magnificent uppercut. And by the time she knew it, her feet started moving in the opposite direction of where they were going, curiosity and the need to explore taking over as the yato girl rounded another hallway, going completely unnoticed by the others.

It was only a few minutes later when they noticed that _someone_ was missing, and when they came to the conclusion of exactly _who _was missing, they knew there was going to be hell to pay for if they didn't find her. Kondo looked around frantically, trying to piece together what was happening at the moment; Hijikata cursed under his breath, Otae had a hand up to her chin, worried lines appearing on her face.

Gintoki felt like his soul just left his body. Because as much as Gintoki thought of her as his own daughter, Kagura had a penchant for losing focus and getting lost in new places ever since she was little (it was disturbing as to how she still retained the habit). And if they didn't find her soon, then they might as well conduct a country-wide search of the girl. . . .Oh, right, they couldn't do that because the "rats" would know something was up.

"Well, fuck."

* * *

She was _lost_, wandering around like a curious little sheep. It never really occurred to her as to how she always got lost in new places. Perhaps, her curiosity to exploring the unknown was just that powerful.

But she wondered just_ who_ was _Okita Sougo_. Obviously, he had to be strong, considering the fact that he was working the same job as her. A 'genius swordsman,' she had overheard some say while walking with the group. _Just how good was he_—

Kagura, with no will to be found, and too lazy to look for her group, quickly spun on her heel to enter yet another hallway. And before she knew it, her body hit something solid, and she fell back, accidentally stepping back a few paces and tripping over herself even more. She waited for the fall, and her bottom fell onto the hard, wooden surface in a matter of seconds.

It felt like a bitch.

Kagura rubbed her sore bottom, this time not even bothering to suppress the curses bubbling up and out of her mouth. "Hey, watch where you're going you bastard!" She whipped her head up to face the person who had made her fall.

He was quite tall, probably a few inches taller than Kagura, with long, sandy-hair tied up in a ponytail, and a red and white yukata. A white scarf was secured around his neck, and blood red eyes that held a slight annoyance to them stared he looked down at her. And was that a smirk forming at his lips? Kagura growled and quickly stood up.

Sadistic bastard.

The young man was still taller than her by than just a few inches. He smirked. "_You_ should watch where _you're_ going, China girl. Now, where's my apology?"

Kagura slanted her eyes. _China girl? _This fucking asshole was _clearly _enjoying this. "Bastard, you're the one who wasn't looking! I can't believe you knocked a young maiden to the ground!" She stomped her foot and huffed angrily. Kagura was obviously _not_ willing to cave, and it didn't seem that the asshole in front of her was going to either.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Young maiden? I thought you were a china beast this whole time."

Oh yeah, Kagura was definitely _not_ going to cave in this one.

"You fucking Sadist!" Swinging out her fist, she shot it straight forward to his face until he dodged and took several steps back.

"Anyone ever tell you that you have a temper, China?"

_Crack_

That was it. Kagura had blown her top.

Bringing out her umbrella from her side, Kagura swung it forward just when the man took out his sword and blocked it. She noticed his eyes widen, then regress to their usual, half lidded state. But she looked at him in disbelief. She was using a considerable amount of strength, and yet why didn't this man cave at all?

It only seemed to ignite the furious spark in her eyes as the two stepped back and readied their weapons.

All hell broke loose.

* * *

If Okita Sougo could explain this crazy batshit china girl in one word, it would definitely border along the lines of _insane._

In just the few minutes of meeting her, the first thing that he'd noticed was her blue eyes, which was a strange trait, considering that this was Japan. When he bumped into her, he _was _initially going to help her up (emphasis on the '_was'), _but of course, he was Okita Sougo. And Okita Sougo was a dutiful sadist. By pulling several of her strings in order to see her reactions, he would have to say that he was quite amused at first. Then annoyed, then surprised. Who knew that such a frail-looking woman would hold so much power in her blows? It_ really_ took him by surprise; but nevertheless, he was quick to hide it. And slowly, he watched as they unraveled, clashing their weapons together with outrageous intensity and power that wouldn't even be called _human._

She was the polar opposite of his sister, who was elegant in all ways and had a beautiful laugh.

This girl, on the other hand, was brash, rude, and blunt up to the point where words could actually _hurt_.

But they didn't hurt him. It only made him want to see her suffer even more as they came in close proximity of each other, smirks ghosting over their lips and sweat pouring down their faces. And that's when Okita realized something.

He was _genuinely _enjoying this.

And Okita Sougo wondered exactly why, but is then lost in the swirls of adrenaline, sweat, exchange of curses and death threats, and the clashing of their weapons together—

And for a_ moment_, he felt light.

His thoughts were lost as he maneuvered his feet expertly across the floor in order to gain the upper hand, and then they were clashing again; ducking, dodging, jumping with speed and flexibility, and attacking with intensity all the same.

And then, Okita Sougo had a very small thought pass through him for a brief moment. The thought that was conveyed to everyone from every contest to competition.

'_I definitely don't wanna lose.'_

Both were now panting, cursing for a brief moment before gathering what's left of their speed and delivering the final blow to each other—

"KAGURA!"

"SOUGO!"

The two quickly whipped their heads in the direction of the voices.

"Gin-chan!" The China girl gave an over-enthusiastic wave.

"Hijikata-san." Okita deadpanned with obvious disgust in his voice.

Hijikata Toushirou and Sakata Gintoki quickly ran up to them.

"What are you doing here?" Okita monotonously asked, sheathing his sword before turning to look at a silver-headed samurai. He pointed a casual finger. "And whose he?"

Hijikata and Gintoki both look at the two of them, unsure of what to say. Rather, they were more worried about _how_ to say it.

"Gin-chan?" Kagura asked, confusion laced in her voice. She ignored the tapping of Okita's foot.

"Kagura. . ."

"Sougo. . ."

Both turned their heads to face their respectful people.

Hijikata cleared his throat, playing with his cravat for a moment, and then gestured to Kagura.

"Sougo, meet your_ fiancé_. Kagura."

"Kagura," Gintoki blandly stated with a monotonous tone in his voice after looking at the destruction the two have incurred. "That guy's Okita Sougo, your fiancé. _Good luck_."

It's quiet for a second, and Gintoki and Hijikata_ pray_ that the days ahead will go smoothly—

Okita turned to stare at Kagura in shock (which was very well-hidden). Kagura had her mouth wide-open like a gaping fish and blankly stared into the oblivion of her mind. And then, with startling suddenness, the two robotically turned their heads over to their peers.

"_I want a replacement."_

—But God is so cruel, so praying is meaningless.

* * *

A/N: ch 2 is done!

Not really much to say xD

Til next time~


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ch 3 is up!

**Chew Chew, **ehehehe, **ArczyFellow, **They definitely had it coming xD, **jerkygirl, **Thanks for telling me about my transitions ^^ I went back and fixed them after you told me about it xD, **keks503, **Ahaha xD thanks, **LittleChomper, **Lolz, I loved writing the last line xD. Yeah, he and the rest are in their five years later appearances xD.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 3: Mitsuba. Meetings.

.

.

.

.

Hijikata chose to ignore the intense squabble behind him as he walked in-step with Gintoki whilst the Commander and Otae were strolling just several feet in front of them. In order to protect his sanity from the inhumanely explicit language that were used by the two in the back, Hijikata inhaled and held his breath for a few moment before he released and let out a long sigh.

That didn't make the situation as a whole any better.

"I can't believe this shithead is my fiancé. . ."

"Believe me, China, the feeling's mutual."

"My name's _Kagura, _you sadist."

"And my name's _Okita Sougo_." He paused for a second, "Although Sadist doesn't sound that bad either. . ."

Their banter continued all throughout the hallway, whereas they contained it in hushed words and curses, which were being interpreted as an exchange of sweet conversations to the eyes of outsiders.

Hijikata and Gintoki prayed to the Gods that this would turn out well.

"If you come near two meters of my personal bubble I'm gonna tear off your ****."

"Can't your stupid brain process that I don't even wanna be in your _"personal bubble?"_"

"Sougo. . .you _do_ realize that you both have to share a bed. . ."

"_. . .What?"_

Hijikata and Gintoki gave up on humanity as a whole.

Perfect. Just _perfect._

* * *

She did _not_ like this. Nope, not one bit. Seemingly, her dreams of having a "decent" husband had completely and utterly shattered into tiny little pieces, in which were returned to her in a small bag of hate. Honestly, just what had she done to deserve this sort of punishment?

Apparently, that answer had yet to come.

She was engaged to a sadistic bastard who took pleasure in the pain of others. Disregarding the job, cooperating with the sadist would become an obstacle _not only_ troublesome for her, but also troublesome for the object on the receiving end of her hate. Things would turn _very _hectic if they stepped out of line.

Not to mention that they _also_ had to put up appearances for the public.

Kagura swore under her breath and turned to glare daggers at him.

"Hey, hey, don't think that I like this either—Well, since we're engaged now, I might as well have you entertain me." He slung a hand lazily over his katana and smirked deviously, "What do you want first? Candles, whip, ra—"

The rest of his words were drowned out by the yells of the men training outside in the cold, November air.

She pinched his elbow. "I'll hang you if you ever try that." Mustering a glare that soon escalated into a contest, both backed down at the same time after needing to blink. This was silly, Kagura thought. Why should she be the one to marry this sadistic bastard? Kagura sighed exasperatedly. Her thoughts ended with the decision to murder her baka-aniki the moment she returned.

Then again, this could turn into a _very_ long stay.

Kagura sighed yet again.

"China~, if you keep sighing you'll turn into an ugly monster one day."

At the mention of that slight comment, she stiffened. That comment seemed to have caught the attention of her caretaker and her anego as she immediately buried her foot in his, ignoring the slight cringe as he quickly covered his pained expression with a mask of indifference. Her eyes flickered; an infinite amount of emotions swirling inside of her as she stilled her bubbling anger, blocking out the infinity of voices emerging inside of her head.

_Monster._

_Monster._

_Monster._

_Just a joke. It was just a joke_, she told herself. What was the point in this? There was no use in getting angry over that comment; in fact, he would only see her behavior as strange. It was only a personal matter to _her,_ and he just didn't understand what that word meant to her—what kind of meaning that word had to her, and he _didn't _need to know. Besides their work, he didn't hold any type of special relationship of any sort with her other than the fact of being "hateful acquaintances" or "Fake lovers." Outside of what he had already found out about her in their _"friendly exchange",_ this was one of the things that she was absolutely _not_ going to let him know, _nor_ was she going to allow it to drag her down. Surviving for four years in the job just to get crushed by a measly comment would put a very large dent in her pride.

She faked a dry laugh. "Ha, who the hell's the monster here? I'm _way_ more beautiful than you."

Sometimes, wearing her heart on her sleeve _really_ stung.

* * *

He _realized_—He realized it. The pain in his foot that was a bit too uncomfortable to be called a "playful jab." He noticed the way how her eyes dully shined, caught in between mixtures of emotions that he slowly identified and pieced together as they kept on walking under the guise of still whispering curses at each other under the now watchful eyes of the silver-headed man (which he suspected was the China girl's friend).

And then he realized it. In that miniscule moment of replay in his head that retold their previous conversation.

_Monster._

_Monster._

_Monster._

It was a word that he had somewhat bonded with while he had carried on with the job. It didn't really bother him as much, considering the fact that he _completely_ disregarded his feelings when he was confronted with killing someone. It was inevitable. You either eat or get eaten. He was _far_ too used to that world where he watched as dying people took their last breath, or said their last words in little gurgles because of the severity of the wounds that_ he_ had caused.

_Him_. He shut it all down and tucked them away into a box when he had to do _it._

But_ her_. She was different.

And he wondered just how she had survived this long without discarding what he had to throw away.

Because she decided to bear with the pain while killing people. She decided to wear her heart on her sleeve. She decided to keep _it_, and she carried it with her all on her own. _She _carried her own weight; and while they were still fighting he didn't comment about anything relating their previous conversation. Because he _knew_—although vaguely—so he won't pry. He didn't pry this time. Besides, she already had people who would do that for her. A "hateful acquaintance" was all that he would ever be to her—and he wanted to keep it that way. Because he had things about him that he didn't want her to know about. He had things that were only accessible to him and him alone.

With the exception of _that person_—

"Ara, are these people friends of yours, Sou-chan?"

He stilled.

This could just have turned out to be the worst possible situation that had happened today.

"—and, oh my! Is that your fiancé?"

_Fuck._

Okita Sougo had just jinxed himself.

* * *

Kagura stared at the frail woman, briefly amazed at the delicate beauty presented before her. With flaxen hair that reached her shoulders, she wore a simple yukata that was the color of yellow, adorned with miniature red butterflies on it. Her eyes were the color of the beautiful red sunsets that she had taken a liking to lately, and her lips were curled up into a peaceful smile that would've made men around her swoon.

Kagura gawked.

"—_and, oh my! Is that your fiancé?"_

This _person_. This _beautiful person_ that rivaled her anego's beauty was, in fact, the sister to that sadistic scumbag who crawled out from the pits of hell.

Feeling slammed with the weight of the situation, Kagura couldn't bring herself to say anything other than: "Holy—"

She felt Okita's foot sharply dig itself into her big toe, and resisted the urge to grimace and curse at the same time. "Don't say such contaminated words in front of my sister." He murmured before walking up to greet his sibling.

Kagura gaped.

"Aneue, are you sure you should be up? How's your health? Did you take your medicine yet—"

_No way._

Were her eyes deceiving her? They had to be—because _Okita Sougo_—the one that acclaimed the title of _sadist _on her list was actually being. . ._nice._

He was acting. . . .like a baby puppy.

Kagura immediately gained a respect for the pale woman in front of her.

The older woman hid a laugh behind the sleeve of her yukata, her eyes crinkling around the corners—and it reminded Kagura so much of her Mami. "Stop being such a mother hen, Sou-chan—"

_Sou-chan?_

Kagura downright laughed at that.

"—I heard some commotion coming from the hallway, so I wanted to see what was happening." She smiled, walking in the direction of her husband. Hijikata took her small hand and steadied her frame, letting her lean on him when she slightly stumbled on her way. Kagura watched as the Vice-commander's usually serious disposition slackened a bit, and also caught the action of how Sougo's eyes hardened. She chose not to comment on it.

After a few moments, the Commander (who Kagura completely forgot about this whole time), cleared his throat.

"Mitsuba-san, this person is Kagura, Sougo's "fiancé.""

"Ara, what a beautiful _"fiancé.""_

Kagura immediately furrowed her eyebrows. Okita Mitsuba—Kagura noticed something else in her eyes. She _knew_. She knew about the job and about what Kagura was doing here (which explained the emphasis on the "f" word).

_Obviously, she's the Sadist's sister._

She then raised a thoughtful brow.

"_Stop acting like a mother hen."_

"_Sou-chan."_

"_Aneue, Are you sure you should be up—"_

Kagura felt the faint vibrations of the wooden floor, originating from the woman who was walking towards her and bit her lip. Slowly, unable to take anymore of what was shown, Kagura chose the worst possible timing in human history when meeting the sibling of your "fiancé."

She_ laughed._

At first, it came out in light giggles, then in large waves that made her shoulders tremble; her loud, hearty laugh that she hadn't really heard in such a long time came out in such a long and inelegant manner (although Otae didn't comment on it this time), tumbling out of her mouth as she clutched her stomach and steadied her footing before she could fall onto the floor, snorting in a last attempt to calm herself.

Her giggling phase finally ceased once she felt Gintoki's hand on her head.

He narrowed his dead fish eyes at her when she tilted her head up to look at him. "Don't tell me you're going crazy too, brat. Your brother's already a handful—"

She breathed, "Shut up, I'm way better than baka-aniki."

He smacked her head before turning her head to the eye-level of Mitsuba and the rest of the group, who had been staring at her incredulously at her sudden laughing fit.

With all the sudden attention, Kagura fought to keep her cheeks their usual pale color, and instead, eyed the object that she was laughing at; Okita Sougo, who, possibly knew what she was thinking about.

His eyes hardened.

Oh _fuck it_. He_ obviously_ knew.

Sneering, she threw him a glare.

"_Siscon."_ She mouthed.

He immediately shot her a glare that made her lips quirk up into a triumphant smirk.

_Kagura 1, Okita 0._

Although if not for his sister's presence, she and him would've engaged in a full-blown battle by now.

And despite everything that had happen so far, ranging from the Commander's and Vice-commander's bewildered faces, Otae's placid smile, Gintoki's amused stare, and the Sadist's irritating glare, she was mostly blown away when Okita Mitsuba had let out a hearty laugh as well after witnessing her sudden breakdown.

Mitsuba welcomed her with a warm smile. "So you're Sou-chan's "fiancé—""

She slightly flushed at the word—a habit that she needed to get rid of.

"I hope you'll take care of Sou-chan for now." Shining brightly, Okita Mitsuba looked like she could light up a room. In the midst of everything she looked like a goddess in Kagura's eyes. With her warm sunset eyes and bright smile, she swayed, and surprisingly, despite herself, Kagura had the urge to grin.

Because this woman sounded so much like her mother.

* * *

Kagura and Okita fought over the last orange before Gintoki stole it and claimed it for himself.

They beat him up and threw him out the window.

Currently, they were all seated in one of the shinsengumi conference rooms. Kagura, Gintoki, and Otae sat on one side of a wooden table whilst Sougo, Mitsuba, Hijikata, and Kondo sat across from them.

It was quite amusing as to watch the banters of adults instead of discussing the mission at hand.

Honestly, Mitsuba found this much more entertaining. Watching as her husband argued with the silver-haired man, observing Kondo-san's _subtle _attempts on Shimura Otae-san (who, on their way to the meeting room, quickly found out that they would indeed be greatfriends), and her brother's and Kagura-chan's banter. It was like seeing two little kittens fighting over the last piece of food.

_How adorable._

But despite what was on the surface, she saw the little glimmer of amusement in her brother's eyes. Like he had finally found someone that could keep him. . . .entertained. Someone that could be well-worth spending his time over. Mitsuba wasn't sure about how _exactly_ Kagura felt, but she noticed right away that she was an honest girl. Bright like the sun and energetic like how she used to be when she was young and healthy. And that would usually get you killed if you took up protecting the Shogun—but that didn't happen to her. In contrary, she _saw _that the yato girl had gone through her fair share of pain. Nevertheless, it was amazing has to how she was able to endure it all. And under her beautiful appearance and sharp tongue, she had the strength to bear the weight of what she was given, and still shine after everything that had happened to her. Not forgetting the pain, but still laughing and smiling.

Kagura was someone that Okita Mitsuba would label as brash, but would never leave a person behind. Because she was honest and energetic, and similar to the brazen little sister that she never had.

She only hoped that it would be the same for Sou-chan, too.

Now, _he_ was a different case. Having parents that abandoned the two of them at a young age, she was the only one that showered her little brother with the love and comfort that he had desired, and in turn, he quickly found comfort in her as an important mother-figure. As for _other girls_—despite his habit to keep things secret from her, she knew that he was_ quite_ the _Sadist_ when it came to handling them. He obviously preferred her to stay out of the dark in specific matters and instead, constantly fretted about her health. But she supposed that was her fault, with her poor health and the fact that she never—she _couldn't_ make the attempt to confront him after all of these years. Because she would just be pushing him. She would be pushing on more troubles than he could handle onto his broad but burdened shoulders.

So she would smile instead. She would smile and tell him that everything was _alright._

But he wasn't a child anymore. He was a grown _adult_ who knew what he had to do.

And feeding him sweet lies wasn't going to work anymore.

So Mitsuba, in all of the experiences and memories that she had gone through, silently prayed to God that he beloved little brother would shine like how he did in the past when he was just a small child that would constantly laugh by her side and share stories about "that damn Hijikata"; that he would find someone that could keep and nourish the part of him that he lost for as long as they could.

And in all of her expectations, Okita Mitsuba hoped that person would be Kagura.

* * *

"So you all know that an unknown group has taken people from our side and from the yato house."

Gintoki sighed and cleaned his ear. "We already know the details Mayora. . ."

"M-Mayora!?" Hijikata growled out between gritted teeth, feeling abashed and humiliated by the new nickname bestowed upon him—and sadly, without a cigarette in his hand (in consideration of his wife), he was downright pissed.

Coughing in order to clear his throat, and whatever else he was trying to do to calm down, The Vice-commander set his stern wall into place and proceeded to continue the discussion. "We need to work out a plan. We've already sent several of our men to investigate with whatever information we have, and everyone but Yamazaki was caught and captured."

"Yamazaki?" Kagura quirked a curious eyebrow.

"One of our top spies." He responded, biting the inside of his mouth. "He reported to us that the enemy came in an. . .unusual amount of five, and was quick to knock everyone out before capturing them."

Okita rested his chin on his hand; movements lazy, but eyes focused on Hijikata. "Then how did Zaki escape?" He asked in a low voice.

"He just happened to be lucky. Before his team was captured, he had to go to the bathroom. But when he came out, the entire squad was captured and stuffed in large, body bags, as per his report."

"Aren't there any records of some sort on them?" Shimura Otae lifted her hand up to her mouth, hiding a grim frown.

Hijikata sighed. "That's the problem."

"What do you mean?" Narrowing his eyes, Okita focused his attention on the Vice-commander.

"I had Yamazaki look into whatever information we could find on them, and there weren't any records on them_ anywhere_." He paused. "But Zaki's report did state that they had more. . . .advanced capabilities than the average person."

"Like?" Kagura blurted. "What did they look like?"

"Yamazaki wasn't able to clearly see the items they were holding, but all five people had distinct, golden hair. Even behind hoods, it was only the color of their hair that was distinguishable." He added with a sigh. "Dammit, there weren't any of the records that the shinsengumi had that held information about them. It's like they just showed up in Edo all of a sudden."

Gintoki, lazily picking his nose, stared with unreadable eyes. "Did you find out why they're capturing people alive?"

Hijikata exhaled. "We're still looking into that. In the meantime, Sougo and Kagura-san should investigate with us. Since there's no records about these guys, it's likely that a higher power's in charge. Whoever's leading them is powerful—and they clearly know what they're doing." He bit the inside of his mouth again. "We can't risk any more of our men, so Sougo and Kagura-san need to go undercover and find out who's behind this. Once the perpetrator is found out, we'll attack immediately. Understood?"

As everyone replied in hushed tones, there was the slowly oncoming silence. The seemingly infinite quietness that reigned over all of them and made them think.

Kagura gave a slow nod; understanding, _comprehending_ the situation at hand. But she felt that something was _wrong_. _Very wrong_. And it was something that she had to ask her brother about—or perhaps she should ask Gin-chan about the way he stiffened when the Vice-commander started the descriptions of the guilty, or about the way golden hair stuck in her mind like glue.

Either way, she had a lot of questions to ask.

Gintoki sighed. "This is gonna be a problem. . ."

"No shit." Okita murmured.

* * *

A/N: Sooo, mitsuba's here. . .yea xD

Well, if you guys have at least some idea of the perpetrators, I would like to hear your opinions on it xD

Til next time~


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Ch 4 is up!

**Jerkygirl, **Don't worry, more word exchange will happen in between them soon ;) (Or if I can incorporate their personalities while doing dialogue xD). And by what you suggested about the perpetrators, I'm surprised that you gave it a lot of depth xD. That was really interesting to read. May gold hair rule the world! XDXDXD **LazyAssOtaku, **Love the username xD, thanks for looking forward to my updates xD

Note: So sorry for the late chapter TAT. With Christmas coming up and unfinished gifts to be wrapped. . .it's gotten hectic in my house xD. But all the presents are good to go so I will try my best to update more frequently. Merry Christmas everyone!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 4: Let's Party

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Yamazaki struggled to hold his breath as he was woken up to a rat chewing on his shoe and resisted the urge to sneeze. He scanned the room in a daze, which didn't serve much help since the room was pitch black (and the fact that he had a blindfold on was not helping). Was he underground? He thought for a moment, ignoring the splitting headache he was having as he struggled to tear his thoughts open, analyzing any memory that could have been related to his current situation. But, he supposed, how the_ hell_ he ended up here in the first place was beyond him.

Then, as if someone had split his head open, it slowly poured into his mind. A night patrol after greeting the Yato princess and her retainers, being informed of her welcome party by Mitsuba-san, and then walking, turning to an alleyway, and there was a man with bizarre hair leading several considerably strong ronin—

And then black.

His eyes widened at the sudden realization as his hands tried to feverishly—although futilely—work at the bounds that tied his hands and feet.

Unfortunately, at the exact same moment, the door flew open (Yamazaki was grateful that there was an exit entrance, though he may not be able to get out soon), and light blinded him, enveloping the whole room as he heard four—no,_ six_ men creep in. Their footsteps were loud, resounding through the room like stones being slammed onto the ground, and that intimidated him combined with the terrible situation he was currently in.

He felt the air around him slightly shift as he felt an ominous presence reign over him. He pressed his mouth into a thin line.

"So you're one of the Bakufu dogs," The presence in front of him started, "You don't look very strong." His voice was a deep baritone, dark but smooth and like oil. It left a bad aftertaste in Yamazaki's mouth.

"San," The voice said again, this time moving away from him. Yamazaki released a quiet sigh of relief. "Are you sure he was a challenge?"

"Ichi, that guy beat all those samurai people before charging towards me. . . .Yeah, he's pretty strong—and we need him anyway." He muttered the last part in a hushed, silent tone. The voice this time was quiet, higher than the man that had just spoken to him moments before, and eerily calm. Yamazaki grinded his teeth while he listened intently as the banter between the two men increased. At first, the names that he had discovered had made no sense until the other name was introduced. Ichi and San. One and three. So that would mean, by the number of men that had walked in, he assumed that the names of the people represented their—code names? Yamazaki slowly tried to decipher just how many people that were given these numbers. Although there were only six men who walked in, Yamazaki wasn't sure of the power they held. Perhaps, one of them had influence over a group that the shinsengumi didn't know about. Worst case scenario, they may be pulling strings from inside the Bakufu. . . .

Well either way, the forces they were against were most definitely not easy this time. Despite being a spy, Yamazaki wasn't very good with cryptic meanings, so he chose to store those names deep inside his memory. Hijikata-fukuchou would need this piece of advice when—or _if_ he gets out.

Yamazaki pushed the thought of his mutilated body to the very back of his head.

"—so what did we need him for again?" Another voice. A young, male voice. Most likely another with a number. . ."Shi never told me or Go what we're going to do with him."

_Shi_, Yamazaki recorded. _Four_. He winced as another wave of pain washed over his head. Just what meaning did those numbers hold?

He felt a forced wind breeze onto his face, a presence in front of him, and smelled iron. . ._no_. That wasn't iron he smelled on the person kneeling in front of him. Deducting from the light pictures the blindfold gave him, the iron smell came from a. . .liquid.

Sagaru tensed and waited as he felt an ominous aura pass.

"Ni," The deep baritone voice started. Yamazaki searched his memory_. Ichi_. One_._ . .and _Ni_. Two. "I don't think that's the point here. . ."

Yamazaki Sagaru stiffened.

"I think we have the wrong guy. . ."

A tense silence followed. Yamazaki heard glass shattering in the process, and felt him being lifted up roughly by his collar by the time he could process what had just occurred.

"Should we kill him? He could be used as a test subject." A soft voice. . .San. Yamazaki felt something cold run up his spine, registering into his brain the fear and the tenseness of his muscles. It would not be wise to struggle at the moment, seeing as his life could be decided with one word and his neck would be snapped in two before he could say _'anpan.'_

"Why not? He's useless other than being used as a test subject. Shi hasn't even finished _it_ yet." A new voice; younger and more playful. . ._Go_. Five. But that didn't keep Yamazaki from stiffening.

"Let him go,_ Ichi_, we can still use them."

As if some ice cube had cracked through the banter, Yamazaki immediately felt his collar being loosened as he fell to the floor, slightly slumping into confusion as to what had just happened.

It was a soft voice. . .softer than San, but it held unspoken intensity. An ominous feeling and slippery like water. A voice that was very well guarded and devoid of. . ._empathy_. Yamazaki didn't like that.

"_Rei_," It was. . .Ichi, "What should we do with him?"

And with that very small question, Yamazaki deduced something big. Something that could undeniably be a big piece of information. That man—_Rei_, was their leader.

Zero.

Now all Yamazaki had to do was figure out how to get more information. Safety be damned, this was probably the only way he could assure his own safety.

"Ichi, we can use him for your—"

"Wait!" No sound was heard from that. He couldn't even hear his own breathing, but instead felt the pressure of the six men gaze upon him as he was already taking the last step into the hopeful extension of his life.

"L-Let me work for you!" And with that, Yamazaki took the biggest gamble on his life.

It looked like he wouldn't be able to go back anytime soon.

* * *

Kagura twisted her head to Shimura Otae and Okita Mitsuba, ignoring the stinging ache of her thighs that were too tired from standing. "Um, Mitsuba-san—"

"It's Nee-san—or Mitsuba-nee." Mitsuba put a thoughtful hand up to her mouth.

Kagura swallowed and pronounced every vowel. "Mitsuba. . .nee. . ."

"Yes?"

"Why am I trying on kimonos?" Kagura said, slowly lifting her tired eyes to her 'sister-in-law.'

Mitsuba smiled, "Ufufu, silly Kagura-chan, it's for the party tonight of course." She calmly replied, arms crossed while observing the simple blue printed on Kagura's new kimono.

Kagura raised her eyebrows. "Party?" She originally thought it was weird for Mitsuba and Otae to suddenly kidnap her from one of her wars with the Sadist and drag her into her room. They even started stripping her of her white cheongsam the minute she entered. Kagura shuddered, choosing to repress the memory.

"To welcome you here." Mitsuba strolled over and started adjusting the sleeves of Kagura's kimono. "We do this every time new people enter the shinsengumi. Does your house do this very often?"

Kagura shook her head and whispered a quiet "no." The yatos never celebrated like that. It was usually a pat on the back or a respective stare as a welcoming for new people. Otae didn't say anything.

Suddenly regaining her energy, Kagura subconsciously wiggled her toes. "But I'm really looking forward to this! I've never had my own party before!"

Mitsuba just smiled, asking no more questions as she continued to observe her work with Otae, who added commentaries every now or then on her size.

* * *

Hijikata looked up from his work desk and studied the report that Yamazaki had given him before his disappearance. A kidnapping case. . .just like the others.

Hijikata didn't bother stifling a curse, seeing as it was obvious as to who did this.

But Yamazaki, although not the best fighter, was smart. Logically, the anpan man could possibly be doing something incredibly stupid right that might just save his life.

Hijikata could only pray that, with no leads on the perpetrators so far, that Yamazaki would figure something out before something worse could happen.

He proceeded to cut off his thinking process there and decided to take a break on the patio of his room, slowly dragging out a cigarette until he quickly shook his head and chose against it. He put the cigarette back into the box. Now was not the time anyway, he needed his brain to think before anything worse could happen—

Speaking of worse, today and the night before was absolutely _horrible_. Just when Hijikata finally thought that Mitsuba could put the sadist and the yato girl into place, they had resorted to _silent kills_ that involved stepping on each other's feet and verbal abuse—which Hijikata was fine with. But after Mitsuba had left their presence, it was as if a tornado had entered the area. Broken glass, ruined tatami doors, _caving roofs_. . .

Hijikata deemed that they were a lost cause once they fought over exactly _who_ would sleep outside last night.

There was no way they were going to get through this job—_no way._ Well, that would be what he would like to say, but seeing as the Shogun was their leader, they had no choice but to obey to the will of the superior.

Then again, Hijikata wondered just how the Shogun dynasty managed to conquer the yatos. . . .

Pushing unimportant thoughts to the back of his mind, he continued to walk back to his desk to continue his work, only to be disturbed once again by one of the presences that irked him just as much as Okita Sougo's did.

Sakata Gintoki.

Although it wasn't really justified as to why Hijikata disliked him. It was possibly because of the overwhelming similarity they had in. . .certain aspects that he refused to talk about. Aspects that only his wife knew. Or, it could be the silver hair that irked him—

His thoughts were caught off once the silver headed samurai stared at him with half lidded eyes, completely devoid of any humor and unimportance at the moment.

"I figured you should know about this before the brat runs to me."

Hijikata resisted the urge to raise his brows, and instead stared back at him, the atmosphere suddenly hardening and crusting over, as if what he was going to say to him actually mattered.

* * *

Night quickly took over the day as it blew calming but chilly winds around the shinsengumi compound. The Shinsengumi settled quite nicely in one large room, serving drinks and pouring one another's sake. The party was going quite smoothly in Kagura's eyes as she sat with Mitsuba, the Vice-commander, and Sougo, sharing formal greetings with guests and the rest of the shinsengumi. Although, her mood was soiled once more when several people, most likely from renowned companies related to the Shogun engaged in a conversation with her and the Okita family.

The man who mainly spoke to them was Nobutetsu Shinra; a wealthy bakufu official that Kagura heard (from Kamui) was a complete and utter suck-up who took the credit for the deeds that others did—not like it bothered her brother anyways. But seeing him in this state today was absolutely _revolting_ and. . . ._annoying_. With his plump appearance and a cup of sake in his hand, Kagura wanted to ask just how he managed to attain the position of a bakufu official.

"Oh my! Okita-san, I see you have become strong over the years—" The old man rambled on as if there was no tomorrow, and Kagura knew the tired feeling of having to talk formally with people who had greedy purposes (courtesy of being forced by her brother to go out to his meetings with him). She kept a placid face as the old man continued to rant and flaunt his latest grab at money with Hijikata and Okita, completely disregarding and ignoring Mitsuba's greeting and Kagura's annoyed glance. The bastard didn't even have any consideration for women.

Fortunately, Mitsuba-nee looked like she didn't mind the treatment, possibly already used to the years of experience of being the only women in the shinsengumi until just a while ago. . .

Kagura sent a pity look towards Okita, who completely masked his hate, but still showed signs of it, judging by the way his eyes narrowed. Hijikata, on the other hand, seemed to have more experience with it, plastering on the smile of a politician and slowly but surely was trying to convey his anger through his sharp choice of words.

Meanwhile, she pushed back her thoughts and then slowly sat up, informing her peers that she needed to have a moment to herself. Meaning: _I'm going to the "bathroom" for the rest of the time. Don't bother me._

Kagura stood up and quietly walked over to the side of her 'fiance.' placing her hand on his shoulder for show (in reality, she was gripping his shoulder until she felt something crack). They still had to keep up appearances after all. "I'll be gone for a bit."

He turned his head up to her, and she felt the tip of her hairs stand when gripped her shoulder with his hand and brought his mouth up to her ear, giving out the image that he was whispering sweet words to her. "Now that's just cruel, China. Leaving me alone with this fat old man _and_ Hijikata-san is going to _kill _me." He said, deadpanning.

"Does this face say I care?" She deadpanned, whispering softly, but in a rushed tone. The air in here was stifling.

He hid a scowl and gripped her shoulder even tighter. _"Bitch."_

"_Bastard."_ Kagura sneered with a triumphant smirk as she wriggled out of his grasp and made for the hallways.

* * *

Kagura swerved to another hallway, grinning to the passing shinsengumi soldiers who were patrolling the hallways. It lifted an explained annoyance in her chest after she left the room with all of the famous bakufu officials and politicians. Despite that this was _her_ welcome party, some unwelcome people must have came for their own curiosity as to _who_ exactly the yato princess was, or either wanted to engage in a conversation with the Head of the Okita House.

Either way, Kagura never really liked those typed of people. It probably explained why she was so bad at hiding her feelings as well, despite her ability to lie. Her thoughts trailed as she walked around, passing rooms and spiraling into new hallways until her thoughts landed on a single subject.

_Gin-chan._

The way he stiffened once the Vice-commander mentioned golden hair concerned her. Especially with the situation that the shinsengumi's top spy had been taken. . .

She swallowed and willed herself to breath, not noticing just what had just happened after she found herself landing ungracefully on her bottom.

"Sorry, are you alright?" A young, slightly apologetic voice. Male.

Kagura sighed, ignoring the feelings of bubbling anger and déjà vu as she quickly brought herself up, completely disregarding the hand that was held out to her. Once she was up, she studied the man through anger clouded eyes before letting the urge of cursing him to death took over. He was a little taller than her, but several inches shorter than the sadist, with black, unkept hair that gave him the appearance of a total lazy individual. Although that fact was retracted once she saw his clothes that had hung semi-tightly around his skin; his yukata outlining the muscles that he had.

But Kagura held an ominous feeling far inside her chest. It was natural instinct. A thing that had become a friend that yatos had relied on—and the fact that this man—why wasn't he at the party?

"I'm okay." Kagura immediately retracted the curses forming at the tip of her mouth, and with the current situation, decided to dig deeper.

The young man offered a smile; very well constructed and with a certain amount of charm that would have made a girl swoon. Fortunately, Kagura did nothing but raise her brows in confusion. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" She struggled to hold back finishing that sentence. He then pasted on a look of semi-shock that Kagura bet he didn't even bother putting effort into.

"_Exploring_. What about you?" He was steering away.

Kagura shrugged. "Got bored, the bastard of a sadist was being stupid, old people were being suck-ups." And just when she realized what she had said, she immediately clamped a hand over her mouth and steered her head upward to the young man's face, who had—_amusement_ lining his eyes. He curved the corners of his mouth upwards into somewhat of a smile that Kagura couldn't discern and slowly walked up to her until she could feel his breath on hers. Kagura stilled her breathing and refused to move her legs. Rather, she couldn't.

"Hey," The young man started, "What's your name?"

"Kagura."

He bit back something, she had noticed. He bit back something that looked similar to a sneer or disgust. . .

She wanted to know why—

"And sadist?" He finally asked, faint traces of disgust still lingering in his eyes. Kagura ignored it and focused on his eyes. They were grey. Grey like painted clouds during the storms that she loved.

"That stupid fiancé of mine that needs to die." She immediately deadpanned. And somehow, her personality and the words just slipped out of her mouth before she could take them back and swallow it whole. But Kagura, who trusted her instincts, felt that she needed him to know about it.

The young man studied her thoughtfully before letting any emotion come to him. And after several moments—or minutes in Kagura's case, he let out a laugh that shook his shoulders as a warm flush crept onto her cheeks.

It took quite a while for the young man to compose himself before he formed his next words. "You're pretty interesting, despite being a pampered yato."

_Ah_, Kagura though. He (like most people) believed the rumors that other people had spread—which was technically intentional so she wouldn't be under suspicion of the public for doing her job. She narrowed her eyes, deciding to keep with that act for now. Suppress her strength and be thought of as a gutsy she-yato with only words as her defense. But as much as he believed that, once the young man had said _yato_, she felt another slight wave of disgust over the use of it.

With half-lidded eyes, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"_Exploring_." He immediately replied with the same tone he used before—amusement.

Kagura only hummed in confirmation. "Can I touch your hair?"

Before he could respond, Kagura had already went up on her tiptoes and grabbed a fistful of the young man's black locks—ignoring his protests and growls.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow—"

Ignoring his pained grunts, she quickly ran her fingers through his hair, feeling the rough texture and something that was—semi wet and gooey. "You have pretty hair." She murmured through half-lidded eyes, closing them and then opening slowly, not even bothering to look at his face as she quickly withdrew her hands and hid them behind her back.

The young man dropped his howls of pain and stared, gazing onto her as Kagura gazed back until her eyes watered.

He smirked. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Huh?" Kagura closed her eyes, pausing for a moment. When she reopened them, he was already walking; back growing smaller and smaller.

She opened her mouth, thinking, then closing it. After a few seconds, she reopened them again. "What's your name?"

He paused for a moment.

"Ken."

Kagura watched as he walked, bouncing lightly with every step.

_Lie._

She followed him. He didn't say a word.

Kagura swallowed and prayed that this would work.

* * *

Now, if Okita could explain just what he felt, he would say he felt relieved that the fatass of a bakufu official finally stopped bothering him and instead moved on to socializing with the others fatasses in his group. Thank God, he thought, or else if he had stayed for a moment longer, the old man's head would have been separated from his body by now. Damn that china girl for leaving to have her _private time _while leaving him to suffer in this hellhole.

Sougo stood up. Mitsuba caught him out of the corner of her eye.

"Sou-chan, where are you going?"

_Out to administer revenge._

He pointed to the hallway. "Toilet." And walked out of the room in a fast-paced stroll. Once he was in the hallway, he swerved around, looking for signs of red hair and a blue kimono. Damn that China. Even in his own home he couldn't find her. . .just where she had managed to go puzzled him as he rounded another corner, stopping immediately in his tracks once he saw two figures walking up to him. Okita inwardly blanched, partly because of the way his fiancé was acting, and partly curious as to what was going on.

Most of all, he was curious about _who_ was with her.

When the two finally caught him in their line of sight, Okita kept his placid façade on and gave a politician's smile. "I was looking for you—_dear_." He drawled out the last part a bit longer than he would've liked and inwardly cringed. The small trickle of sweat that was slowly coming down her forehead only made him more curious.

He saw her swallow. "_Dear_, this is Ken." She made a gesture to the man next to her, who tipped an invisible hat and smiled.

"Pleasure, Okita-san." He extended a hand, signaling the cue for Sougo to extend his and grasp it firmly as his gaze never left the grey eyes. They hid something that he wanted to know about. Okita ignored Kagura's glance and took extra precaution to not make any of his emotions slip until he let go, letting his hand hang limply at his side.

"Well my dear," The young man lifted his hand to Kagura's shoulder and let it rest there. "I'll see you some other time." He then left, bowing once more to Okita as he walked down the halls. Immediately after, Sougo grasped the hand of his fiancé and roughly dragged her up to him.

"Ow—what the hell was that for Sad—"

"What the_ hell_ was_ that_?" He murmured. What if someone had seen her with that guy? Then this whole entire job would've been blownto pieces_._

Kagura merely sighed exasperatedly and tilted her head to the young man who was already halfway down the hallway. She stood up on her tiptoes and brought her mouth to his ear, "After the party." There was no hint of humor or play in her voice. _That_ regarded his attention, and the delay of administering revenge.

Once the young man was completely out of their sight, the yato princess released a triumphant grin (something that Okita wanted to wipe off of her face). "I think I just found our information box."

* * *

Meanwhile, Kamui sat in his room, carefully scrawling a short note on a piece of paper and then flinging it to Abuto, who was leisurely sitting right next to him.

"Give this to imouto-chan. By the looks of things, we really can't afford to take any risks."

Abuto quickly glanced at the messy handwriting and sighed. "The princess isn't going to like this. . ."

Kamui smiled. "Really? I find this situation much more interesting."

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this chapter is done xD Sorry for the late update

Just a brief review for Japanese numbers in case you guys were confused:

Rei means Zero

Ichi means One

Ni means Two

San means Three

Shi means Four

Go means Five

Til next time~


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: ch 5 is up!

I decided to change my Review Section format. . .is this kind of structure better? xD idek

**Jerkygirl, **Yea, I'm betting on silver too xD (there wouldn't be a Sakata Gintoki without his Gin and silver hair xD). Yes, pray to the anpan Gods. . .Yamazaki will need it all xD. And oh my god, there is so much more to explain about the perpetrators I don't even think that a couple of chapters will cover it .. A jealous Sou-chan? Hurhurhurrrrr maybe a tad somewhat very small miniscule tidbit of jealousness due to the author being such an okikagu fangirl xD. Ken? I guess so. . .lolzzzz thanks xD. Lastly, regarding the humor. Well, I'll most likely add tidbits of funny/mood relieving humor when the moment calls for it, but sadly, my story is an AU fanfic based on the two main characters who kill others for a living and shows their internal strife from their past doings. . .yaaa (in fact, the okikagu couple are in the middle of killing a handful of people as their job at the moment xD). Besides, I've wanted to focus my story on depth more so than humor this time around (even though Sorachi sensei can do both. . . .god why is gintama such a masterpiece xD?). But I sincerely apologize if this fanfic is lacking in the humor section (I'm a sucker for comedy too xD), but I will surely take your opinion into mind when I'm cultivating a fun moment in this later on xD.

**The Blue Hydrangea, **Oh my God, you reviewed my story! Anyways, thank you so much! I have been working on my writing since my first okikagu stories (to which when I read it now, I feel like I should rewrite the hell out of them xD).

_I also felt like I should reply to the people who read my oneshot, 'Cold Rain.' ^^_

**Chew Chew, **thanks, I will write more when I have free time ^^

**Gakupoid's writing domain, **thank you so much! Oh the fluff *drowns in feelings*

**Keks503, **thank you!

**Sparkling Apples, **Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

**Guest, **Ahaha thank you!

**Jerkygirl, **O-oh, ehehe, I didn't think that you would like my story that much. . .I-I'm really happy xD *grins awkwardly in corner*. Ahh, the good old punctuation. . .one of the things that I will never conquer xD. Anyways, thank you for liking this short oneshot (with the typical Kagura and the frustrated Sougo xD).

**The Blue Hydrangea, **Thank you very much! And thank you about the 5 year fact, I wouldn't have noticed that fact if you hadn't pointed it out xD. Sougo is a hardcore, stubborn, and way-too-smart-for-his-own-good sadist, so yes xD. And don't be sorry about your thoughts Hydrangea-sempai! I love critiques, they help my writing and it gives me a new outlook on the characters as a whole ^.^ so please don't hold back at all!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 5: Moments

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Kagura made sure that no one saw the two of them as she strolled alongside the young man. If this half-baked plan of hers was going to work out, then there better not be anyone catching a glimpse of her. That would just result in the questioning of her and that Sadistic bastard, and Kagura refused to have any more curious eyes on her any further unless she wanted to destroy the whole purpose of their job.

_Act like a girl with more bark than her bite_, she thought and absentmindedly straightened out any creases in her kimono. Years of lady advice from her anego would prove to be useful in this.

"I didn't think the yato clan's little princess would be so interested in me." Ken chuckled, closing his eyes for a moment.

Kagura coughed into her hand. "You don't know a lot of things about me." She restrained herself from gagging at what she just said. Originally, it was a line that she had picked up from one of those shoujo mangas that her papi had gotten for her. . .

She felt the tremors of his hum as he brought an arm around her shoulders. Kagura immediately swung her head around to give him a glare, only to have him bring his finger to his lips and point to a passing shinsengumi soldier. Slowly, but reluctantly, Kagura leaned back into his arm, giving the unwary soldier one last glance before turning her head away.

"Like what?" He drawled, his arm still hanging loosely around her shoulders. Kagura resisted the urge to tear it off and explode into her interrogation.

Instead, she gazed into his eyes, deadpanning, "Like the fact that I have an _Inugami _at home that could bite your head off if your hand goes any lower than this."

A moment of silence, and she felt the arm on her shoulders slightly twitch.

"Well, I have a younger brother who can kill you with his optimism."

Kagura wanted to stomp his foot into the ground and leave him there. "What's your brother's name?"

He chuckled. "Why does it matter to you?" A familiar glint that resembled Kamui passed through his eyes, "Don't tell me you're falling for him?"

She really wanted to leave him here. "No way. That's just half-assed work if I fall in love with someone I just met." _Or heard of._

"Does that rule apply to me?"

Kagura narrowed her eyes for a moment, feeling for the gooey feeling that was still stuck on her finger from the hair fiasco earlier.

"It applies to_ all men_—especially the _Sadist_."

She felt his eyes on her again. "Do you not want to like him?"

They turned, passing by an old tree that must have been planted there centuries ago.

"I hate him." She said after a moment, deadpanning. Hoping that her theory would work, she inhaled. "He's a bastard who keeps picking fights with me and is always busy with work. Honestly, if _this_ is my future husband, I would rather marry a rock." To be honest, Kagura couldn't believe the feat she had barely managed to pull off. She was (half) _lying _through her teeth, ignoring the way her palms were sweating as she carefully constructed and reconstructed her personality to wait for his reaction.

_I am Kagura. I'm a beautiful girl who was unfortunately married to that bastard of a sadist._

Ken's smirk made Kagura to snap out her reverie. "How are you so sure that I won't tell someone about this? It would cause quite a scandal."

Kagura breathed, smelling the night air and swallowing down whatever was left of her old personality. She smiled. "Because I think I might be the answer to all of your _problems_."

Kagura felt the air still all of a sudden, waiting for _something_ to pass as they continued walking through the compound. And for the rest of what she thought was_ forever _(up to the point where her feet started to ache), there was only the increased force of his grip and the continuous stroll that should've ended a long time ago.

"How do you know?" He finally spoke in a low voice; no more playfulness or mischief. Just a frown of curiosity and something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Kagura tilted her head upwards; her appearance indifferent and hidden of whatever was there before as she felt her hand grow sticky. "The fact that you weren't at the party."

"And?" He pointed his gaze at her, most likely waiting for an answer that's more suitable to fit whatever his expectations were.

"Your hair's prettier when it's not black."

They came to a full stop. Kagura felt the grip around her shoulders tighten as she suppressed the twitching of her eye, waiting for a reaction that may just shake the whole entire course of hers' and that sadist's job. _Good god_, they still had to figure out the purpose of the kidnappings and the numbers they had. And this person. This_ person_ that Kagura was ninety-percent sure connected to _them_ from the absence of his presence at the party to finding black hair dye on her fingers—he was one of _them._

One of the perpetrators.

And her eyes could have been as wide as saucers when the young man let out a loud and long laugh; enough that shook his shoulders and made Kagura consider the fact that she needed to call a doctor. What was this? Was this good? Was this bad? But considering the fact that he hadn't done anything to her—yet. . .Kagura laid down the possibility that she was safe for the time being.

Because she had just caught the amusement and attention of one of the perpetrators.

"—Oh _god_—you're_ too_ funny dear—" He let out another hearty laugh. Kagura willed herself not to shrivel up and take a step back.

"_Don't be a weakling, dear sister. A yato never backs down."_

Now there was only the part of her plan where she had to step into his good graces and charm her way through the rest of the way. Find their hideout, find out their plan, find the rest of the main people that are associated with this, then figure out how to beat them.

The sooner this was finished, the sooner she could go home and kill Kamui.

Kagura closed the door to her thoughts for a moment and focused on the figure in front of her, who was in the process of reducing his laugh into subtle waves of silent chuckles.

"That's the first time anyone's told me that." Like the passing of the small breeze that shook her hair for a moment, he wiped away the rest of his chuckles just as quickly. "How'd you find out?"

Kagura pushed both of her hands behind her back and announced proudly, "I don't show my secrets to strangers unless they show me theirs'." At least that was what her brother had said to someone at one of the meetings that she had to attend with him. . . .

She watched him smirk as he started to pace back and forth. "Three questions." Ken stopped to watch her reaction, observing the mask of interest and indifference in her eyes that would have taken_ Kamui_ to discern. "Do you like this place?"

"Not at all." _Lie._

She did. She_ loved_ this place.

"How much do you know about your own heritage?"

"Not much." Gin-chan never told her anything like that—she never really asked either. . . . .

"Do you like your own kind?"

And something passed through his eyes, a feeling that Kagura identified from before as she froze up and stilled. Disgust. _Loath_. Perhaps, they weren't after the Shogun. They could possibly be after the—

_Yatos_.

And Kagura blew an imaginary strand of hair from her face.

_Yatos._ A strong hate for yatos that could possibly be the key card to her success.

Whatever was in her eyes that he could see was shut down as she stared for a brief moment. A test. Nothing but a test.

She let out a prompt _"No."_

At last, his smirk drooped into something she couldn't discern, and then as quick as it came, reverted back into a smile. "Do you know what kind of stuff we do?"

At least this was one question that she didn't have to lie about. "I've seen worse." She did. She was the one_ doing_ most of it.

Ignoring the silence that reigned upon them once more, Kagura bit the inside of her mouth and brought both of her hands to the young man's face before the silence could turn into an endless wave of forever. Discarding the curious yet amused look he gave her, she stared, _"I hate the yato clan."_ And she said it with as much emotion she could muster from the times she spent in that household. She hated the yato clan, which was true—to an extent. She never really_ hated_ it up to the point where she wanted to lead a purge and destroy it (plus, Kamui would _definitely_ kill her before that happened). Despite its old traditions and hostile behavior of 'strong and weak,' that was the house that she was born into—where her papi and dead mami and stupid brother older brother lived in. It contributed to what made her _her. _She had an obligation to protect it. . .

Besides, it wasn't like _everyone _in there was a jackass. . .

She turned her thoughts off once she felt a cool hand resting on top of her head.

The young man smiled. "Then do you want to see it? Our revolutionary moment."

Kagura narrowed her eyes. This was it. "Revolutionary moment?"

The smile melted, turning into a mixture, and then something else. Determination. Passion. Establishment. A whole entity of _new._ "The moment where the yatos go extinct."

_. . .what?_

The smile that reminded her of Kamui so much was still there. "Do you still want to do this?"

And she went over everything. Over the arm that used to be slung on her shoulder, over the place that she lived in—over the_ job _that she was supposed to do._ What choice did she have?_ She would be murdered on the spot if she refused and he knew that—although this did indeed turn into something else as a whole. Something—as her brother would say—_interesting._

She smiled. _"Yes."_

Kagura felt the air around her still as she felt the hand on her head leave, only to be replaced with a crinkle of paper resting on top of her head. She quickly picked the piece of paper off and tucked it deep inside the sleeve of her kimono.

Ken quirked the corners of his mouth up into a half smile as his hand fell lazily by his side. "Meet me there in a few days." And without another word after that, he extended his hand towards Kagura, who grasped it firmly as if it were a lifeline.

They walked back.

* * *

Hijikata pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled. "So what do they do with our people?"

Kagura shrugged. "I don't know, that's what I'm planning to find out later."

"Alone?" Okita drawled, his elbow lazily resting on top of the wooden table in one of the shinsengumi conference rooms. "Are you sure that'll work out?"

"What, you _worried_?" Kagura sneered, amusement etched deep into her face.

"Just the fact that if you screw up, we go down with you." Okita observed the amusement in his so-called rival's face transform into a frown as he dodged a kick to the shin, which was gracefully directed to the other object of his hate.

Hijikata let out a low, painful curse.

"Damn kids." He muttered. "You're almost married now, why don't you guys just get along—"

His face was magnificently smashed into the wall with a loud and painful crack.

A twisted sense of satisfaction was etched all over Okita Sougo's face, "Ah, now my revenge is finally complete."

Kagura spat. "No way in_ hell_ I'mever getting along with him."

Gintoki whistled while Otae and Mitsuba covered their mouths with the sleeves of their kimono. Kondo squeaked and immediately ran over to the Vice-commander.

"Toshi!"

Kagura chose to turn her head from the less-than-important moment Hijikata and Kondo were having, and instead chose to turn her head to the four other heads who were still seated at the table. She saw her rival slowly tap his finger on the wooden surface. Contemplation.

"What are you doing?" Kagura tilted her head.

"Using my brain—unlike _you_," He drawled again, ignoring the glare Kagura gave him, "If he snuck into the party last night, then how come no one told any of us about this? I'm pretty sure he's not famous enough to be known by any of those fatasses in the room."

Kagura opened her mouth, then paused, then reopened them again, realizing the content of her words as she slowly drawled them out. "Because he knows_ how_ to get in. . ."

Gintoki narrowed his eyes. "And that means that—"

"Someone inside the shinsengumi—or even the_ bakufu _is helping him out." A rehabilitated Hijikata carefully took a seat next to his wife.

Kagura stared at the two incredulously for a moment, ignoring the confused glance that was thrown her way. "You two should go out." She deadpanned.

Silence reigned—something that Kagura thought was occurring way too often as everyone stared incredulously at her. And before she could blink, she felt a hard force literally slap the backside of her head as she blinked back yellow stars that were most definitely not part of the dull, ceiling decorations.

"_Ow_—Gin-chan what was that for—_ow_!" She covered her head as she felt the continuous snap.

"Do you really think that I would stoop this low, huh? I'll have you know that Gin-san's soul is just as straight as his heart! If anything, I think you've gone mental like that baka-aniki of yours. . ." He muttered the last part to himself as Kagura retaliated by grabbing her umbrella beside her and bringing it down forcefully until the entity known as Sakata Gintoki was nothing more than alien mush.

She spat, not realizing that her rival was watching her strange behavior with concealed interest. _"Bullshit."_

"Language, Kagura-chan. You should only say that when you are attacked by gorillas this big." Otae, who was seated beside Mitsuba, made a hand gesture that rivaled Kondo's height. Kagura immediately sat down and muttered a silent apology.

"Hah, serves you right, China." Okita smirked. Kagura stuck her tongue out to him. "Although I would agree with you. Hijikata deserves to be in that type of ship—"Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a painful force on the back of his head. After a few seconds, he turned with half-lidded eyes to see a flushed Hijikata (who, seemed to still be deprived of nicotine).

The Vice-commander seethed, steam slowly pouring out of his ears. "Are you brain dead, huh? Who's shipping who?!"

Kagura and Sougo watched with mutual interest (for once) as Gintoki nodded in agreement with the vice-commander's unrelenting rant.

"—_who_ would ship me with this lazy perm head over there?!" Hijikata pointed an angry finger, ignoring Gintoki, who was currently in the prelude of explaining that _'it wasn't his fault that his hair wasn't straight.'_

Kagura, Sougo, Otae, and Mitsuba simultaneously raised their hands.

"_I would."_

Kondo watched as the whole room was in the process of being blown away by the curses and profanities of his vice-commander and the silver-samurai.

* * *

Once Hijikata Toushiro and Sakata Gintoki had settled enough to not begin another endless rant of why they should not be shipped together, everyone retired to their rooms.

Kagura leisurely strolled beside her _'fiance,'_ exchanging swear words and threats as they neared their room. Gintoki yawned loudly behind them and began the process of picking of picking his nose.

As everyone slowly migrated to their own rooms, with only Gintoki, Kagura, and Sougo left, Kagura felt an unsteady nervousness enter her system as her caretaker slid the tatami doors open to his room. Steeling her will and swallowing a small lump in her throat, Kagura left the Sadist's side with a silent, 'go on without me' look as she hurriedly jogged up to her caretaker, pulling on the sleeve of his white yukata.

"Hm, what's up?" Gintoki looked down to see the smaller woman next to him pull her features into a frown.

"I wanna ask you something." She slowly said, eyeing the inside of his room; indicating the fact that she wanted this to be a 'private conversation.' Gintoki, in all of his years of knowing her, chose to ignore her frown and instead lightly dragged her by the wrist into his room.

"Souichirou-kun! I'm borrowing your woman for a bit!" Gin called, ignoring the way the flaxen-haired man narrowed his blood-red eyes as he closed the entrance to his room.

Gintoki noticed the fact that Okita Sougo had not moved an inch from his spot the minute the silver-samurai dragged his surrogate daughter into his room.

"It's Sougo."

* * *

She sat across from him as her caretaker lay lazily on his futon.

"I figured you would wanna ask me about this soon."

Kagura slowly nodded, stilling for a second. "What do you know?"

Gintoki placed both arms behind his head, still laid-back and unperturbed at the content of her question. "The_ purge_."

Kagura's face darkened and morphed in a form of shock at the mention of _purge_. She still didn't accept it. Despite the fact that the yatos were a powerful clan, they used to constantly construct a 'clean-out' to rid of any race that was powerful than theirs.

_Purge._

Purging had become even more common as Housen had taken upon the name of the 'Head of the Yatos' until Umibouzu had challenged him for three days and emerged as victorious, taking his place as _head_. But even then there were purges—until Kamui took over (surprisingly). Since then, the purges that were led by the yatos ceased, and there were no more unnecessary battles.

She hated them—the purges. They were vile, cruel, and because of the selfishness of of her kind, who wanted to secure the position of _power_, too much blood was shed and too many of the clan members she had never gotten a chance to meet died in the process. It was cruel. But to think that her caretaker participated in the purge—

"Your hage dad didn't really tell us what exactly it was, but it was a specific group. An assassin's planet that was hired to kill people." Gintoki's voice snapped Kagura out of her reverie. "Your bald dad wanted to wipe out the bad ones who were a danger to us at first. . .but that didn't work so well."

"They were all killed. . ." She whispered, clenching her slender hands into fists. Gintoki sighed, looking faraway. Farther than Kagura would've liked.

"Stop looking so depressed, kiddo. There's more to it."

"Like?" Kagura inquired.

"Like the fact that they were planning to take over Earth—the kind of alien stuff you'd see in movies. If we didn't wipe all of them out, they would've killed all of us. Well, it's not like I'm proud of that either; there were kids too."

She felt sweat slowly accumulating in the palms of her hands, talking barely above a whisper. ". . .Kids?"

"Yeah, it was pretty bad. They lost a lot but," He paused for a moment, and the phrase he uttered after that made Kagura clench her hands.

"Earth is more important to me." Gin stared up at the ceiling, looking even farther than Kagura imagined as she tried to bury her fists behind her back.

And she nodded, because she would've done the same. The world was obviously unfair, so nobody got a say in who they could be, but they could choose _who_ to protect—their reasons for living. And Kagura loved Earth. She loved her birthplace and the storms they brewed and the sun that she could never touch because mami told her so, and she loved _people_. She loved how they could live so freely compared to her because they all were so_ happy_. So choosing whether or not to purge a planet for the safety of earth—she would choose saving her planet. Because Earth was _hers'_. It was _everything_ to her. And even though children on that planet—that were the same as the children on Earth—were dying didn't mean that they deserved _that_. But it was a process—something that many people were born into. _Eat or be eaten._ Her world, the world of awe inspiring struggle and sweat. Her world. The world where people—in every world—die every day. It was a process. A process of live, eat, fight, and moving on. That was her world.

Her ugly but beautiful world.

"—I don't really remember it all that much, but all of those people we killed were like the yatos. They even fought on part with them. Even the kids were hauling their asses to fight us—it was a sad sight."

Kagura nodded again, seeing the flicker of bitter reminisce pass through his eyes. "Some of them got out alive, and now they want revenge."

"Yeah." Gintoki sighed once again, his eyes leaving the ceiling to focus on her. "Sorry that you had to get dragged into this."

Before she could stand up to leave, she uncurled her fists and stared straight into her surrogate father's eyes.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't strong enough, Gin-chan."

She saw something cast over his eyes as she left the room.

"Damn brat."

Slowly, before everything could pour out, Kagura left the room and proceeded to walk to her own room, only to realize that a body was leaning on the other door beside the one she came out of. A sadist.

He didn't say anything.

* * *

The light in their bedroom was turned off, and all Kagura could hear was the unrelenting amount of threats spewing from hers' and her rival's mouth.

"I'll roast you alive if you invade my side."

"Ha, China. Why would I wanna come over to your side? It's probably filled with your sweat anyway. . ."

"You bastard!"

"It's _sadistic_ bastard."

Kagura promptly threw her pillow at him, which he expertly dodged as it hit the wall opposite of her. She cursed. "I still can't believe this."

"Believe me, China. I wish it were a dream too. . ."

Kagura smacked his arm—or what felt like his arm since the room was enveloped in pitch black. And she thought.

He didn't ask her. He didn't ask her about her problems. He didn't do any of that. He waited. He waited just like before; standing outside the tatami doors like those moments in shoujo mangas where the guy would wait for the gi—

Kagura immediately stopped her thought process before she could cringe.

After a few moments, silence reigned again, and Kagura felt something inside of her uncurl as she slowly drifted, lulled by the rustling of the wind. She was far too tired to keep up with the banters with the Sadist or the empty death threats that hung in the air tonight.

"—brother."

She drowsily opened one eye and yawned. "Huh, whazzat?"

"What's up with you and your brother?"

Kagura's eyes immediately snapped open as she rose, bed sheets and pillows slowly floating upwards before landing on the futon once more. She hastily craned her head to the occupant on the other side of the futon, who had his back turned and his head buried under the cream colored bed sheets. She swallowed, giving out a tired sigh before slightly leaning forward and then reverting back to her previous position with her back on the futon and her head on her other crooked pillow.

_Blunt. _One of the attributes that many had told her she had. A sharp tongue that could pierce. Unfortunately, the object of her hate had to share some similarities of hers' while talking in a sore topic that was still inaccessible to the public. _Sadistic bastard_, she thought.

But she was far too tired for_ this_. Far too tired for the accusations and the millions of imaginary bottles filled to the brim with whatever she had left. Far too tired to come up with any excuses or accusations or empty threats.

Because he was the same as her.

He was broken and battered and still kept his box locked tight, never once letting it explode or leak. And he was probably the person most similar to her.

The only difference was that his sibling loved him.

Her eyes trailed to the ceiling, lazily focused on the brown patterns and textures. "I don't know what he's thinking about half the time." She felt the bedsheets shift, "Kamui's been like this my whole entire life and—I'm angry at myself for not knowing what he's thinking at all. Even though he's an idiot, he's never really shared anything with us except mami." How strange it felt to her. As if she was pouring half of her bottle out—not to mention to the person she hated the most. "I'm just a tool to him."

She heard him exhale. Something similar to a sigh, but not quite like it. "_China_, I have no idea why you're telling me all this crap when I'm trying to sleep." She heard him shift. "We're all tools anyway. No use in denying that. It's part of the reason why the shinsengumi exists, y'know. We serve them, and we live in return. There's no time to be weak."

Her eyes trailed to her rival's sleeping figure. "You suck at comforting a maiden." She deadpanned with her caretaker's dead fish eyes.

A dry snort escaped his lips. "Did you expect to be comforted, miss piggy?"

"No way in hell you bastard."

"_Exactly."_

". . .Did you want to do this?" Kagura's eyes trailed to the well-maintained umbrella next to her. _Did he have a choice?_

She didn't feel anything from him. Not one move. Not one shift. Not one response. Just the soft sound of his breathing enveloping the room, slowly lulling her to sleep as she reluctantly closed down her thoughts—

And then she heard a knock on the tatami door.

Groggily, Kagura turned to the side her umbrella was on and buried her head under the covers.

"_China, go get the door."_

She threw her pillow at him. "Zip it, I'm sleeping."

And after a few moments, she felt the covers of the blanket shift as Okita Sougo begrudgingly got out of the warmness of the covers to go kill whoever was disturbing their sleep. Barely able to pick up what had just happened, she felt someone pulling the covers off of her seconds after as she was exposed to the freezing air in the room.

"Fuck!—Sadist, what the hell was that fo—" Before she could finish her sentence, an opened letter was leisurely sitting on top of her head as she felt the vibrations of her rival going back to sleep, mumbling incoherent profanities. Curiously, Kagura rubbed her eyes and picked the letter from her head to read.

_Dear sister,_

_Sorry to say this, but we have to make your engagement official. The rats were more agile than we thought._

_On the bright side, congratulations on almost getting married! Papi sends his regards._

_-Your Big Brother_

Kagura read the letter over once more before crumpling it up and flinging it outside to collect dust. Once she walked back into her room, she felt the covers of the futon shift once more, bringing her eye-to-eye with her rival.

"China, if we get out of this alive, I'm killing your brother."

"Gladly."

* * *

A/N: Whoa. . .5 THOUSAND WORDS! Yea, I know it may not seem to be a lot to other people but it's definitely much more than what I'm used to writing xD.

Now you guys know the contents of Kamui's letter xD

Til next time~


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Ch 6 is up!

**jerkygirl, **Did you read the latest chapters!? Literally brought tears to my eyes (;A;). Lolz yea Ken is one of them, and Ginhiji tease xD lolzzzzzzz. And about the purges, I might rewrite that part sooner or later because I didn't really like how I wrote that part. . .too rushed xD. But thank you! I was thinking a lot about this fic before publishing it xD (even though there are still lots of loose ends that needs to be tied up lolz /shotshotshot) Yes. They sleep together xD in order to make the act believable after all. Okikagu is official now hehe.

**GintamaFeels, **Ehehehe

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

* * *

A Lady's Job

Ch. 6: Investigating

.

.

.

The next morning everyone came together for another meeting, albeit rather sleepily. The only ones who looked presentable were Kondo, Hijikata, and Mitsuba. Kagura was barely managing the task of keeping her eyes open as she propped her cheek on the wooden table of the conference room, Sougo almost mimicking the action by placing on an indifferent façade whilst keeping his sleeping mask on, barely making an effort in hiding the dark circles under his eyes. Meanwhile, Gintoki was downright snoring, miraculously not waking up to the gorilla woman's constant kicks. The disgusting dribble of saliva that slowly seeped onto the table made Kagura wonder just how her powerful her caretaker's balls were.

If he had that much sleeping power, then that could only mean that it came from one place.

Proving Kagura statement correct, the only kick Otae mustered that actually managed to wake him up, was when his precious balls were given an immediate wake-up call—followed by an immense amount of screaming—and blood.

"_GYAAA! MY SONS!"_

"Shut up Gin-chan, you're too loud," was Kagura's immediate response as the screaming samurai released a groan, followed by another string of colorful words. All of the men in the conference room subconsciously twitched, feeling something itching uncomfortably in between their legs.

Otae smiled.

Hijikata was the first to break the silence with a low cough and an exasperated sigh, "You guys already know what we're doing here. The only thing we need to make sure of is the fact that Kagura-san won't be found out. Tracking devices or bodyguards won't help. She'll have to wing it this time." He concluded.

"Why?" Otae asked, her heavy question laced with worry. She wasn't worried with Kagura's strength, seeing as how she had lived and dealt with the female yato for years. It was the fact that they wouldn't be able to help her if she managed to get herself into trouble. . .which was something that happened more than often.

"Because she'll probably be inspected before she'll be told anything." Okita replied, his voice surprisingly clear and sharp, despite his lazy exterior. "We can't afford her to be found out after we've already found out this much. Actually, we can't trust anyone now. The fact that someone from the bakufu could be causing all this would make us an even bigger nuisance to them."

Mistuba pursed her lips together, feeling slightly helpless about the whole situation presented before them. If anything went wrong, that would become an immediate signal to the perpetrators. Sou-chan and Kagura-chan could be killed if this didn't go well. . . .

But then again, people like her little brother and Kagura-chan were full of surprises. . .

Kagura raised an eyebrow after a brief moment, "So, what'll you guys do while I'm out?"

"Researching." Hijikata replied, "One of our guy's is a hacker, but he doesn't show up that much on our missions because we don't have anyone of his caliber in the shinsengumi other than him. His name's Shimura Shinpachi. He'll be helping us hack into the files of some government officials so that we're aware of any suspicious activity that might be related to the perpetrator."

"For his age, Shinpachi-kun is truly an amazing hacker!" Kondo bellowed, grinning almost like a child. Kagura tilted her head over to scan the other people in the room, who either looked indifferent or slightly disturbed. The only one who wasn't presenting any of those actions was her anego. Strangely enough, Kagura noticed a sliver of contemplation pass through her eyes before being hidden with another smile. She blanched. It was honestly shocking, for the red-headed yato to realize that her anego, the one that always told her to keep her emotions in check and had raised her since she was ten, show her real emotions. Shimura Otae was very restrictive over her own facial expressions. Everything was perfect up to her beautiful smiles and her elegantly masked eyes—they were all skillfully covered up. Shimura Otae was—

Shimura Otae—

Shimura—

_Shimura. . ._

_**Shimura.**_

Kagura pressed her mouth into a thin line.

"_Anego."_

"_What is it, Kagura-chan?"_

"_What did you do before you came here?"_

"_Hmm. . .let's see—I was traveling with my sibling."_

"_You have a sister?"_

"_Ufu, A little brother."_

"_Where is he now?"_

"_. . .I don't know—I don't plan to find out either."_

"_Why?"_

"_Because you can't change the past, Kagura-chan. . ."_

Kagura felt her eyes widen as she stared at Shimura Otae, all perfectly patched up and pleasantly smiling. It felt weird, being near someone for a long part of her life—and yet she still didn't know _half _of her problems. . .It was—_troubling_. It pressed a sense of guilt into the corners of Kagura's bones, a constant reminder that she was truly oblivious. She had known the young woman for so long, and just now she realized that her anego barely confided her problems with her. To put it in one word, Kagura was disappointed in herself. It brought up a similar taste of bitter reminisce, just like the situation with Kamui. The only difference was that Kagura couldn't discern Kamui's thoughts since the moment she was born, and even if she tried (to this day she still hadn't given up hope), there would barely be any reaction from him.

The room fell into a trance of akward silence, seemingly once everyone in the room registered the fact that there was _another Shimura_ in the room at the moment, and the fact that she was wearing one of _those _smilesprompted everyone—even _Kondo, _to realize that this was not a topic for further discussion.

Hell, even _Okita _stayed silent, passing Kagura a questioning glance before returning to his indifferent façade.

Kagura lowered her eyes to the table, and for a few minutes, the only thing that was heard were the rustling of the tree branches outside.

"So. . ." Gintoki started, "What's the plan?"

"Get off of your sorry asses and look for information, and pray that I come back in one piece." Kagura replied, a bit too sardonically for her liking.

"Make that two _bloody_ pieces." Okita added.

"_Bastard!"_

* * *

Once the meeting was over, everyone dispersed and went their separate ways before going through with the assigned agenda.

Meanwhile, Kagura ungracefully strode out of her room, ignoring the presences that graced the hallways. She had already said goodbye to most of them earlier. . .all except for—

"_Oi."_

She stopped, then using her heel, spun around. "What?"

He wasted no time in filling the silence. "I'm surprised that you decided to go."

Kagura paused for a second, then sneered, "Oh, are you actually worried about me, Sadist?"

He narrowed his eyes and snorted. "No, _Miss Piggy_. You're not allowed to be beaten by anyone other than me." He paused for a thoughtful moment, "Although, I don't think you'll have any trouble taking down those people with your lack of sex appeal."

She felt her cheeks flush and grow warm with anger. "Oh yeah, Sadist?! Then just watch! I'll be a more perfect lady than you can ever expect me to be!" With another huff and a quirk of Okita's eyebrow, she continued to stomp out of the door.

Halfway out, she heard her rival uttering words that would not be comprehendible if not for her expert hearing, almost wanting to rush back over to the spot that he stood in and ask once more—

"_Then you'd better come back."_

—But, Kagura was not her childish, fifteen year old self anymore. She _knew_—the underlying meaning beneath his words. It was enough. Actually, it was more than enough for her to feel. . ._welcome_. As if she had another home that she belonged to.

She promptly ignored the small bit of foreign feeling that slowly spread within her chest, and quickly concentrated on her sudden but slight, irregular breathing patterns, internally and externally showing light concern over the matter. She would just consult to her Anego as to what this feeling was. _Surely,_ she would know.

And with that, she spun around on her heels once more, uttering words that she _knew_ he would be able to hear before strolling out of the door.

"Damn right I will."

* * *

She strolled down the streets of Kabukicho; the city of outlaws. Truly, if Kagura had wanted to pick a place to live in, this would be her choice, first and foremost. It was rough, the ways of living included prostitution, gangs, yakuza, wannabes, and poverty. . .but there was a certain aspect that she liked about the place. A sense. A sense of _freedom_. And in a world so restricted and discreet such as hers, _this_ was something that Kagura had practically wished for her whole entire life. Rough, dirty, but straightforward and free.

Kabukicho; the city of outlaws.

Expertly, she maneuvered through the crowds with indifference and ease, her dark boots thumping away at the ground as her white kimono filled with the same designs as her mentor swayed with the slightest movements. Her eyes were focused, but slowly, slowly, the feeling of unease and giddiness was forgotten as she walked deeper into the city. The buildings, the lights, the dango stands—everything was perfect.

And by the time she knew it, her footsteps had taken her to the location that was written on the piece of paper that Ken had given her.

_Otose's Snack Shop._

Slowly, she inhaled, then exhaled, then repeated the process. _Gather information, don't get killed._ She opened the door—

And was met with a liquor bottle smashing against her head.

Kagura didn't flinch as the blood pooled down and dripped onto the floor. Yatos didn't flinch. They didn't show any weaknesses. Instead, her eyes were more focused on the interior of the room and the source of exactly _who _threw the bottle.

"HASEGAWA-SAN, YOU NEED TO PAY YOUR TAB!"

"BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY!"

"THEN WORK IT OFF! THERE ARE PLENTLY OF JOBS IN YOSHIWARA!"

"BUT CATHERINE—"

"_Oi."_

Out of all of the voices, Kagura's was the quietest (not that it wasn't loud, but over the rants of the drunkards, hers wasn't that loud), but the cutting edge to her voice prevailed throughout the whole entire bar. The two voices who were arguing stopped to crane their heads over to her. Kagura inhaled deeply for a second before letting go of the reins, spreading her murderous aura throughout the whole shop.

"You bastards," she growled, slowly striding forward, "Who the hell threw the damn bottle, _eh?!_" Her eyes sharpened menacingly, her Chinese mafia accent slipping out, but Kagura was far too annoyed to care about that. The man with sunglasses who was arguing with the cat amanto earlier promptly shut his mouth and pointed right at the cat lady. Immediately, Kagura felt her knuckles crack. The cat woman didn't shrink away. In all actuality, that only seemed to boost her ego even more.

"Heh, so what?" She sneered. "Not tough enough to handle that, _little girl_?"

Kagura felt the blood dripping down her head tingle.

Elegancy be damned.

"Oi, are you deaf? Or are you frozen in fear by the latchkey Catherine's presence?" The cat woman puffed out her chest a little bit.

_What the hell_, Kagura thought. But almost immediately, her nerves steeled and the vein on her forehead exploded.

This was war.

"OHRAA!"

Her job be damned for the moment.

Her pride was much more important.

"_OI, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING—NYA?!"_

"GIN-CHAN ALWAYS TOLD ME TO PAY SOMEONE BACK TEN-FOLD!"

Both figures pounced on each other, Kagura easily overpowering the elder woman with a series of swerves and kicks, but managed enough strength to control herself. If she were to use the full brunt of her strength, then she would be responsible for explaining to Kamui exactly why the yato house was responsible for rebuilding Otose's Snack Shop.

Meanwhile, the elder woman retaliated violently, making an extraneous effort to scratch out Kagura's eyes while she had her hair being pulled. They roared and lashed out at each other, ignoring the crowd of drunkards who, in turn, were starting to place bets and wrench out their money. Kagura's umbrella was stashed away so that the shop wouldn't be on the yato house's tab.

Once Kagura had the "Catherine" woman pinned down with her stomach on the floor, she felt the tremors of leisure footsteps approaching; slowly, slowly, until Kagura could hear them. Step, step, another step, then stop.

"_Oi, what are you two brats doing?"_

As if a button had been switched off, Kagura pushed herself off of the cat woman named Catherine as both simultaneously flipped their heads up to the old woman, who, in turn, raised an eyebrow towards their disheveled appearances (more so to Catherine than Kagura).

"Otose-san!" Catherine called, and immediately stood up to run over to her—only to receive a hard smack on the head.

Kagura _winced._

"_Idiots_." The woman called Otose muttered as she took a long drag of her cigarette, "If you brats wanna make a mess in my shop then do it outside!"

"But she was the one who started it!" Catherine immediately rebuked, pointing an angry finger towards the yato.

Kagura felt a migraine coming forth, her energy slowly draining as she diminished her short-lived temper. "Heh, aren't you one to talk! You're the one who smashed the bottle at _my head_!"

Catherine scoffed, "You weren't mature enough to let it go, _princess_!"

"It's a different story when there's blood!"

Otose paused for a thoughtful moment, "Catherine, you would do the same."

The cat lady gawked at the owner of the bar. "Otose-san—!"

"Shut it." Otose breathed and another loud smack resounded throughout the room. "Go clean up the glass and cool yourself off. Tama will take over your position."

And with an angry huff, the cat woman spat on the floor and scurried out of the shop, a brief silence ensuing for a moment before returning to the sounds of drunken men and laughter.

Kagura relaxed and found a pair of eyes on her.

"_You."_ Otose firmly spoke, directing her attention to Kagura and the dried blood stain on her head. "Wait here." She disappeared for a moment, striding to the back of the counter and shortly after, produced a white rag. "Go get cleaned up. I got a customer that's reserved a spot for you upstairs."

"Uh—okay. . ." Kagura replied dumbly before catching the rag that was thrown to her. As soon as her obliviousness passed, she felt a foreign, almost fearfully familiar sense of emotion expand in her chest. It was strange, for her throat to clench up and swell like it used to when she was younger. It was strange indeed—that she felt her chest tighten and the back of her eyes slightly itch whilst the Otose woman proceeded to colorfully scold her as she slowly nodded, albeit slightly numb. It felt so _familiar_—almost drowning her in a field of something that she had buried in the back of her head. It reminded her too much—far too much of. . .

_Mami._

Kagura immediately shook her head, dissuading herself from the brief nostalgia of a bedridden woman, a girl sleeping beside her—and a warm hand atop of the young girl's head.

Kagura breathed and automatically stopped. She was far too old to be thinking about this—especially now. Especially when she had a job to do.

Straightening herself out, she breathed once more and proceeded to the back of the room, only to be stopped with a hand on her shoulder.

Otose took a lazy drag of her cigarette. "Hey, I don't know what kind of stuff you brats are pulling, but you shouldn't get too involved with those types of people."

Kagura paused for a moment, and with practiced effort, offered a half-smile. "Nah, it's my job."

She shook the warm hand off of her shoulder and disappeared off to the back.

The old woman exhaled, inhaling the drunk atmosphere in her shop.

Her mind lingered on the redhead for a moment before turning to the counter and resuming her motherly watch over the inhabitants of Otose's Snack Shop.

* * *

The back of the shop was just as clean as the front—only empty except for the black haired individual sitting at one of the wooden tables in the back corner, the dim light illuminating his face.

Kagura restrained the urge to clench her fist as she proceeded to stride boldly towards the individual.

"Hey," she greeted as she sat down across from him, masking her features with a smile.

"I almost thought you weren't coming." Ken replied, chuckling. Kagura shrugged.

"I got hit in the head with a bottle."

He looked up at her amusedly, noticing the slight emotion that she allowed to flicker through her eyes. "Ah, was it Catherine? The woman with the cat ears?"

Kagura nodded, albeit a little too enthusiastically.

"Haha, she always gets into fights with customers, but she's not all bad." Ken smiled placidly.

Kagura spat and grumbled. "Then why don't _you_ get a bottle thrown at your head. . ."

"I'd prefer to keep my beautiful features beautiful." His smile widened.

Kagura huffed. This was like conversing with her brother. . .and yet she was having—_fun._

_Oh shit._

_Not good._

She wasn't supposed to be having fun. She was supposed to be investigating—_digging_. Her job, remember her job—failure was most definitely not an option at all. And yet. . ._why?_ This was like how she felt when she was around the Sadist, only to a lesser extent.

_Dammit._

Suddenly, she now wanted to lock her heart up and become the ruthless monster that she was. Just for this moment, she wanted to discard her feelings and soul and crush them under her boots. This can't happen, her inner self yelled. She can't afford to make any mistakes; form any _real_ bonds with the enemy—

But isn't that exactly what she was doing? From the moment she bumped into him she had been obliviously traipsing around and. . .to an extent, past everything—past the fear, the anxiety, the anger, the judgment, the opaque justifications, she felt _exhilarated _to just discover what was going on.

Dammit.

If only she could be like the Sadist—

_No._ She couldn't break what she was living for.

Kagura flipped her head up to Ken and smiled, all the while earnestly praying to God for something—_anything_ to happen that would make her hate him.

It didn't work, and they lapsed into a period of silence; contemplating silence. And that was when she saw something flicker in between his grey eyes that made her painfully aware of the exit.

Investigation. He was doing it too.

He was examining her inner self, breaking past her, ripping her layers apart—looking for _something _before she could actually be trusted. Before she could be let into their plan to exterminate her clan.

She felt the temperature in the room drop as she stared into his eyes, steeling her will and boldly letting him attempt to break her layers and layers of lies. But that won't happen. In between everything, something in her blinked and wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Pour a bit of her bottle out and accept the fact that she was already a lost cause since she turned fifteen, because it was all too damn deep. Too deep for her and the Sadist to resurface. Like him, she was drowning in a bloody ocean of lies and unjustification and manipulations that she just couldn't break free of—and she stayed. _She_ stayed and let what happened to her reel her into the cruel reality of her world. But she didn't turn.

Kagura smiled. Ken returned it.

_Ha_, she thought. Let him try. She won't break.

Never again.

The exit seemed so far away as she waited, waited for the exhilaration to exit and the curious eyes on her to cease and stop and fully accept her dirty lies.

Ken dropped his smile for a moment before shifting it back into place. "You're quite interesting, you know."

Kagura shrugged as she met his narrowed eyes with her own. "I get that a lot." She paused for a second. "Am I in?" Curiosity laced her voice.

He paused for a moment, wordlessly staring into her eyes. "Yeah."

The light above them flickered before returning to its normal state.

"Let's get started."

* * *

Shimura Otae stood in front of a young man sitting behind a computer, knowingly realizing that her presence was being ignored.

Okita Sougo and Sakata Gintoki were dozing off, ignoring the attempts at being woken up by the Demon Vice-commander, who only gave up after he himself was being calmed down by the combined efforts of his wife and Kondo Isao.

"Toushirou-san, it's best to let them sleep. Besides, Shinpachi-san won't be done for a while." Mitsuba placed a warm hand on his shoulder, feeling him settle as he slightly leaned on her, just enough for her to sustain his weight.

The inhabitants of the conference room were all staring into the eyes of silence as nothing but the tap, tap, tap of keys were being pressed at an alarming rate.

Shimura Shinpachi sat in front of the computer, intently putting in a combined effort in hacking into precious bakufu files and ignoring the troublesome presence in front of him.

Click, Click—

_Access Denied._

Again.

Shinpachi swore under his breath and proceeded to try again, typing in different formats; scanning through the multitudes of barriers and secrets and obscene computer securities that would've driven a normal person to give up on the second try.

He paused for a moment and pushed his glasses back into place, then resuming the tap, tap, tap of keys. It was_ truly_ a luxury, to hack into such a powerful system and dig into its dirty secrets. Truly, what an interesting system this was. Hard—but not impossible.

"_Nothing's impossible, Shin-chan. Father says that all the time, doesn't he?"_

"_Father doesn't think I can do it. Help people my way. . .He says that it's bad. What's so bad about it, aneue? Am I bad?"_

"_Nonsense, Shin-chan. I think you're amazing, to be able to do these things. Aneue will support you all the way!"_

"_But what if I turn bad and I don't use what I have for good purposes? What if I become a drunk baldy and use my ability to do bad things for bad people?"_

"_Shin-chan, you won't turn bad. I know it. You won't turn into a drunk baldy either. I will always be there to support you, because you're my brother."_

"_Really?"_

"_Yes, and in the future, if you're good, I'll be good too. And if you turn bad, I'll be the one to smack you straight!"_

A soft beeping noise emerged from the computer. Shinpachi let his fingers slide off of the keyboard.

_Access Granted._

* * *

"I'm surprised you know about the purges."

Kagura shrugged, "It's kind of hard not to know when everyone in your family participated in it."

"Fair point. Now then, do you know _who_ we are?"

"No." She replied. _Lies._

"We're not amantos, but we're from the planet that your clan decided to purge. What was his name? Umibouzu—yeah, that was his name. He thought we were too dangerous because we were just going to Earth to gather some supplies—"

Kagura bit the bottom of her lip. He didn't know. . ._Of course_, he didn't know. He must've not known that they were about to invade Earth, to send it burning.

"_There were kids too."_

_Of course,_ he must've been a child back then. . .the same age as her. The adults must have told them—fed them what they wanted to hear in order to make them sound like tragic heroes—it was the same system. She knew it all too well, since the system was in the yato house as well. Training child soldiers, it was natural to give them something to protect first, and then give them a lie so that a hatred just as intense could manifest the urge to kill. . .

"—I was just a kid back then with my little brother. Our planet's name went down along with the rest of it."

Kagura lowered her eyes to the ground, her throat clenching up. She felt a lightbulb flicker in her mind. "How'd you get out then?"

"We were saved by Rei—"

_Rei._ Most likely the leader.

"He took us to safety and found a ship that we could use to leave the planet." His eyes flickered for a moment, sustaining something dangerous. An explosive spark—_admiration._

And somehow, it _scared _her.

"Without him, we'd be dead." Ken concluded, placing another placid smile upon himself, waiting for Kagura's reaction.

A moment passed. Her throat clenched. _Too bizarre._ The exhilaration and the anxiety, it was deciding to choke her _now. _Manifesting as a desire to know more and to understand the different sides as to what was going on—

She laughed.

She _laughed._

Whether it surprised Ken or her own self more, the laughing continued, erupting from her throat in long waves of foreign feelings that contained bottles and bottles of something as she went over the story in her mind. _Truly_, how bizarre. The cliché past and the lies that she had just discovered being the sole reason why she was supposed to kill these people who possibly could relate to her. . .And she kept laughing, reducing the waves into small gasps of air and bubbling laughter, suddenly coming to the obvious realization that the cycle had always been like this. You find something to protect, you find something to kill, and you're either hunted or successful.

Was this how the sadist felt when he boxed it all out?

Finally straightening herself out, Kagura ceased her laughter and proceeded to lift her head up and face him, boldly waiting, and somehow, she brought herself to grin. Genuinely.

Ken, snapping himself out of his reverie, looked upon her with curious eyes, amused eyes, and let out a small chuckle. "You're _crazy_," He slowly narrowed his eyes, "I was right to bring you here."

Kagura blinked for a second, and then brought a hand to her chin. "So, what are you guys?"

He smirked, following it up with another placid smile as he grasped her hand and encased it around his.

"_We're the Kai."_

* * *

A/N: I felt that chapter 6 was too long, so I decided to split it and write in 2 parts xD

Felt like the ending was too rushed. . .

I am so sorry for the late update. School was the main issue here. High school preparation, midterms, all the normal crap packed for the months to come—along with homework. *cries*

BUT! I shall try to update as frequently as possible! So I give many thanks to the people who still read my stories despite my infrequent updates!

Til next time~


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